Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, alternative-fuel provider Clean Energy Fuels (Nasdaq: CLNE) earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Clean Energy facts

Headquarters (founded)

Seal Beach, Calif. (2001)

Market Cap

$919.7 million

Industry

Oil and gas refining and marketing

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$156.41 million

Management

Co-Founder/CEO Andrew Littlefair

CFO Richard Wheeler

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

(13.7%)

Compound Annual Revenue Growth (over past 3 years)

13.2%

Cash/Debt

$55.7 million / $11.95 million

Competitors

Exterran Holdings (NYSE: EXH)

Fuel Systems Solutions (Nasdaq: FSYS)

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

On CAPS, 96.5% of the 1,008 members who have rated Clean Energy believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include manilagalleon and wd4922trading.

A few months ago , manilagalleon tapped Clean Energy as a great way to gas up:

As more and more natural gas fueling stations are constructed, the consumer will understand the benefits and auto companies will be pressured to power their automobile production using natural gas. As the price of crude oil rises, the more [Clean Energy] will grow.

Clean Energy continues to be one of our community's favorite ways to pounce on beaten-down natural gas prices. As opposed to gassy producers like Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) and Anadarko (NYSE: APC), whose leverage might be too high for more conservative tastes, Clean Energy uses natural gas in its more than 200 fueling stations nationwide and sports a debt-to-equity ratio of close to 0. As the push toward natural-gas-powered transportation gets stronger, renewable energy infrastructure plays like Clean Energy, along with rivals Exterran and Fuel Systems, seem to be in the perfect position to benefit.

This past summer, CAPS member wd4922 followed the lead of an energy billionaire and bought the Clean Energy bull case:

Boone Pickens is a smart man and he believes in and has invested in this start-up company. The management has been relentless and persistent and growth of the customer base has grown steadily. They started and have built their customer base on moderate duty vehicles in municipalities and over the road vehicles and only minimally in passenger vehicles. This is a smart move. I believe that in 3-5 years this will become a remarkable company.

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