4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: GrafTech

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 130,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, graphite products maker GrafTech International (NYSE: GTI) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at GrafTech's business, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

GrafTech facts 

Headquarters (founded)	Parma, Ohio (1886)
Market Cap	$786.79 million
Industry	Electrical components and equipment
TTM Revenue	$1.19 billion
Management	CEO Craig Shular (since 2003) CFO Mark Widmar (since 2006)
Return on Capital (average, last three years)	25.9%
Competitors	SGL Carbon Tokai Carbon
CAPS members bullish on GTI also bullish on	Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Vale (NYSE: RIO) Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX)
CAPS members bearish on GTI also bearish on	UCBH Holdings (Nasdaq: UCBH) Exelixis (Nasdaq: EXEL) Jaguar Mining (NYSE: JAG)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, 757 of the 770 members who have rated GrafTech -- some 98% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include NinjaSteve and All-Star ypcheng, who is ranked in the top 4% of our community.

Last month, NinjaSteve cited GrafTech's beaten-down price (which is even lower today) as a historic opportunity:

Slowdown has spooked this stock down into just stupid multiples. A return to multiples even on the bottom end of the historical range will blow this one out of water, even if steel is a little sluggish in 2009.

[By the way], Mini-mills and electric arc furnaces will come back first, may be coming back already, and electrodes for these is where [GrafTech] makes most of its money.

In a pitch from last week, ypcheng shares that contrarian spirit, updating our community on GrafTech's recent results:

The steel companies all have suffered recently while the market rallied 14%. However, steel inventory is down and everyone must order graphite electrodes again. [GrafTech] beat the expectation in Q4 and expects a small loss in Q1. They have done the necessary cutbacks and Q2 should be a turnaround quarter.

What do you think about GrafTech, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 130,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.