Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, global IT solutions giant International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

IBM facts

Headquarters (founded) Armonk, N.Y. (1910)
Market Cap $220 billion
Industry IT consulting and other services
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $106.4 billion
Management Chairman/CEO Samuel Palmisano
CFO Mark Loughridge
Return on Capital (average, past 3 years) 24.7%
Cash/Debt $11.3 billion / $30.2 billion
Dividend Yield 1.6%
Competitors EMC (NYSE: EMC)
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ)
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)

Source: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 90% of the 4,317 members who have rated IBM believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Star poppycock2 and divinezone.

Earlier this week, poppycock2 tapped IBM as an outstanding Oracle of Omaha-owned opportunity: "[Warren Buffett's] on board now which should portend good things for this solid company. Companies will continue investing in IT because they really have no other choice in order to remain competitive."

In fact, IBM's three-year average return on capital of 24.7% easily tops that of tech rivals such as EMC (7.7%), HP (12.8%), and Oracle (14.8%).

CAPS member divinezone elaborates on the bull case:

It seems as if IBM is going through a new stage in terms of the culture and image of its business. Over the past few years, as I see it, it has gained a "cooler" feel to the company, and creative, quirky endeavors such as the Watson Jeopardy extravaganza are a prime example of what I'm talking about. Its advertisements are pervasive and effective, and it has some of the smartest engineers and developers in the world working for them.

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