Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, global IT solutions giant International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

IBM facts

Headquarters (Founded)

Armonk, N.Y. (1910)

Market Cap

$217.1 billion

Industry

IT consulting and other services

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$104.56 billion

Management

Chairman/CEO Samuel Palmisano
CFO Mark Loughridge

Return on Capital (Average, Past 3 Years)

24.4%

Cash/Debt

$11.8 billion / $29.8 billion

Dividend Yield

1.7%

Competitors

EMC (NYSE: EMC)
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ)
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)

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

On CAPS, 90% of the 4,184 members who have rated IBM believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include JBMiaCity and IRVINGP.

Just last month, JBMiaCity tapped the stock as a solid way to go for growth: "IBM is an innovation center much like [Apple] and will continue to outperform as it continues to drive the high tech markets and adapt its business model."

In fact, IBM's three-year average return on capital of 24.4% easily tops that of tech rivals like EMC (7.4%), HP (12.9%), and Oracle (15.3%).

CAPS member IRVINGP expands on the outperform argument:

IBM with its broad range of IT platforms, software, storage, and services to make solutions work well for governments, large multinational corporation, and middle to small enterprises make their business processes cost effective at a level surpassing any other solutions is in a position to continue to grow through the next decade.

If only they will rediscover the productivity, creativity and profit potential its own North American employees, then they will explode their revenue and profits beyond any other IT corporation.

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