Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, vet services specialist VCA Antech (Nasdaq: WOOF) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

VCA Antech facts

Headquarters (Founded) Los Angeles (1986)
Market Cap $2 billion
Industry Personal services
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $1.36 billion
Management

Co-Founder/CEO Robert Antin

Co-Founder/COO Arthur Antin
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) 17.1%
Cash/Debt $132.2 million / $530.4 million
Competitors

PetsMart (Nasdaq: PETM)

IDEXX Laboratories (Nasdaq: IDXX)

Siemens (NYSE: SI)

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

On CAPS, 94% of the 245 members who have rated VCA Antech believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Star bg11235, who is ranked in the top 5% of our community, and tekennedy.

Earlier this year, bg11235 touched on VCA Antech's solid fundamentals: "[T]hey have a good history of earning their cost of capital. Moderately counter-cyclical industry that should do ok in a low growth recovery. Valuation ratios have become very reasonable."

As the largest operator of animal hospitals in the country, VCA Antech remains one of our community's favorite plays on the massive $40 billion pet services space. In fact, VCA Antech's three-year average operating margin (18.4%) tops that of main rivals PetSmart (7.3%), IDEXX (17.3%), and Siemens (7.7%), as well as other pet stocks like PetMed Express (Nasdaq: PETS) (16%) and MWI Veterinary Supply (Nasdaq: MWIV) (4.2%).

CAPS member tekennedy expands on the bull case:

Their market leading position in a fragmented market will help ensure further economies of scale as growth continues. The business model of acquiring new locations while growing labs internally seems an effective model. A result of this plan is the laboratory segment constitutes the primary source of excess returns at this point because of the significant goodwill in the animal hospital segment; over time they should be able to grow into the goodwill and increase overall ROE. Take advantage of temporary economic conditions to get into a company which should beat the S&P over time.

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