Based on the aggregated intelligence of 110,000 investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, oil and gas giant Chevron (NYSE:CVX) has earned a respected four-star ranking. While five-star stocks have been the best performers, our data has shown that four-star stocks still outshine the market by a significant margin; conversely, low-rated stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

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

Chevron facts

Headquarters (Founded) San Ramon, California (1879)

Market Cap

$171.45 billion

Industry

Integrated Oil & Gas

TTM Revenue

$248.78 billion

Management

CEO Dave O'Reilly (since 2000); CFO Stephen Crowe (since 2005)

Return on Capital (avg. last three years)

22.2%

CAPS members bullish on CVX also bullish on

ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM)
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)
General Electric (NYSE:GE)

CAPS members bearish on CVX also bearish on

BP (NYSE:BP)
Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO)
General Motors (NYSE:GM)

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

Over on CAPS, fully 626 of the 661 All-Star members who have rated Chevron -- some 95% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include HoustonMatt and rd80, both of whom are ranked in the top 2% of our community.

In late June, HoustonMatt noted that Chevron is "lopsided on the upstream side (exploration and production) as compared with the other super-majors. Production is where all the profits are with high crude prices as compared to downstream (refining & marketing)."

A pitch from rd80 earlier in the month supported that bullish sentiment, stressing Chevron's upstream-enhanced upside:

Last quarter, [Chevron] earnings beat estimates by 7 cents a share on strong oil pricing. Nearly all the profits were from the upstream, or oil production, side of the business. Downstream operations, refining and marketing, only kicked in $252 million of the over $5 billion of profits.

The big unknowns are whether oil prices will continue to climb or pull back and, if oil prices pull back, will refining crack spreads widen so the downstream ops start adding more than token earnings?

... I certainly don't know where prices will be later this year, but given the higher oil prices so far this quarter I think there's a good chance [Chevron] will beat earnings again next quarter.

What do you think about Chevron -- or any other stock, for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 110,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.