Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, health-care equipment maker St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

St. Jude facts

Headquarters (Founded)

St. Paul, Minn. (1976)

Market Cap

$12.9 billion

Industry

Health-care equipment

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$4.94 billion

Management

CEO Daniel Starks (since 2004)
CFO John Heinmiller (since 1998)

Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)

19%

Cash/Debt

$667.05 million / $1.96 billion

Competitors

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT)
Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX)
Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT)
C.R. Bard (NYSE: BCR)

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

On CAPS, 95% of the 489 members who have rated St. Jude believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include jsGreenmachine and thethirdchimp.

Late last month, jsGreenmachine tapped St. Jude as a healthy buyout candidate:

This stock has takeover appeal as its market cap is well below [Medtronic] but it's financials are comparable. The industry has had a few years to consolidate: so valuation wise the leaders are more ripe for the picking from other Wall Street savvy companies just now entering the field ... ie. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).

As a leader in cardiac-rhythm management devices, St. Jude remains of our community's highly rated plays on aging baby boomers. In fact, St. Jude's compound revenue growth over the past three years (11.9%) tops that of rivals Abbott (11.1%), Medtronic (7.7%), C.R. Bard (8.1%), and Boston Scientific (-1%). Of course, when the demographic trends run so clearly in the medical device industry's favor, CAPS member thethirdchimp thinks you really can't go wrong with any of those stocks:

Demographics around the world indicate a growing population over the age of 65 in developed countries and a richer, broader middle class in emerging markets. The demand for health care and heart-related equipment/supplies will rise substantially year over year for the next two decades. St. Jude's, as well as, [Medtronic] and [Boston Scientific], big pharm, other health-care suppliers are the right businesses at the right time. They have to be really badly managed to screw this up.

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