Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, U.K. mobile giant Vodafone Group (Nasdaq: VOD) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Vodafone facts

Headquarters (founded)

Newbury, U.K. (1984)

Market Cap

$135.4 billion

Industry

Wireless telecommunication services

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$69.07 billion

Management

CEO Vittorio Colao (since 2008)

CFO Andrew Halford (since 2005)

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

7.6%

Cash/Debt

$7.47 billion / $61.81 billion

Dividend Yield

6.8%

Competitors

AT&T (NYSE: T)

Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S)

France Telecom (NYSE: FTE)

Telefonica (NYSE: TEF)

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

On CAPS, 93.5% of the 826 members who have rated Vodafone believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include Retracement and All-Star TMFDeej, who is ranked in the top 1% of our community.

Earlier this month, Retracement highlighted Vodafone's solid fundamentals:

Vodafone is the largest telecom company in the world by revenue, but despite being one of the most profitable still enjoys some pretty impressive [valuation metrics]. ... The company sports a [dividend yield] of 7% and has laid out its plans to increase this substantially for 2011 and 2012. ... Vodafone is 45% owner of Verizon Wireless, with Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) owning the remaining 55%.

Vodafone's sheer scale, geographic reach, and seemingly undervalued stake in Verizon Wireless continue to fuel its high CAPS rating. Additionally, with a debt-to-equity of just 0.4 -- substantially lower than rivals like Sprint (1.1), Telefonica (2.4), and France Telecom (1) -- Vodafone seems like a relatively safe play, as well. And while the chances of Verizon landing Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone next year may be slim, CAPS All-Star TMFDeej likes Vodafone as a free way to play that long shot:

The beauty of this is that Mr. Market is currently giving [Vodafone] little to no credit for hits huge ownership position in the United States' premier wireless company. Once that cash starts flowing to Vodafone (and we're talking about a lot of cash ... Verizon Wireless generates an estimated $10 billion in free cash flow annually) the company's earnings will take off. [Vodafone] can use the cash to invest in emerging markets and pay shareholders a larger dividend.

Eventually, Verizon may even end up buying the 45% of its wireless division that it doesn't own from [Vodaphone].

As an added bonus, Verizon Wireless will eventually get a nice shot in the arm when Apple finally decides to allow owner carriers besides AT&T to support the iPhone. Who knows when this will happen, but it eventually will.

So there you have it. Another cheap, dividend stock, with a free embedded call option.

What do you think about Vodafone, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!