4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Covanta

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Based on the aggregated intelligence of 135,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, energy-from-waste technology provider Covanta Holding (NYSE: CVA) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Covanta facts

Headquarters (founded)	Fairfield, N.J. (1960)
Market Cap	$2.71 billion
Industry	Environmental and Facilities Services
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$1.59 billion
Management	CEO Anthony Orlando (since 2004) CFO Mark Pytosh (since 2006)
Compound Annual Revenue and Net Income Growth (over last five years)	44.9% and 80.4%
Competitors	Waste Management (NYSE: WM) Veolia Environnement (NYSE: VE)
CAPS Members Bullish on CVA Also Bullish on	General Electric (NYSE: GE) Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
CAPS Members Bearish on CVA Also Bearish on	First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS.

Over on CAPS, fully 276 of the 287 members who have rated Covanta -- some 96% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include greenfuture and All-Star mrindependent, who is ranked in the top 3% of our community.

A few months ago, greenfuture reminded our community that "Covanta is a multinational world leader in turning a major environmental liability -- non-recyclable waste -- into a major environmental asset: clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction." Our CAPS member concludes: "Assuming it does this in a cost-effective way ... it qualifies as a member of the green shift low-hanging-fruit family and ought to thrive not only in any global green revolution, but particularly in a financially constrained one, as we are experiencing now."

In a pitch from last week, mrindependent kindly updated Fools on the stinky story:

The timing for this pick seems reasonable because Covanta's price recently dipped after a somewhat disappointing earnings report. … Although the price of 2 times book (or 22 times earnings) seems reasonable for a growth company like Covanta, the company has quite a bit of debt that must be paid from future cash flows. BUT-- the upside is EXCITING. The company's mission of converting waste to energy makes sense at a very basic level -- and surprisingly enough the company has generated decent profits in recent periods. This company could be THE NEXT BIG THING. If so, its high debt levels will be an easily surmountable issue.

What do you think about Covanta, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 135,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.