5 More Top Growth Stocks

Are you really a growth investor?

It's worth asking. Even though talk of a growth-stock rally has spread to the pages of The Wall Street Journal, investing in fast movers can be a stomach-churning experience.

Think of chip maker Silicon Motion (NASDAQ:SIMO), which suffered a 6% loss yesterday on no news whatsoever. Surprised? Don't be. Market panics occur daily. That's why all-star investors bet on growth over the very long term. They know that:

• Businesses that make investors billions always begin as growth stocks.
• The best of them feature massive and identifiable competitive advantages.
• Growth as a strategy has the capacity to deliver 20% or greater annual returns for decades at a time. 

How we do it
Of course, not all growth stocks will do. Our weekly hunt is for the next great multibagger. But unlike David Gardner and his team at Motley Fool Rule Breakers, who scour everything from financial statements to trade magazines to clinical reports in their research, we're going to rely on our Motley Fool CAPS investor-intelligence database.

Specifically, we're looking for stocks that have earned a five-star rating in CAPS, and which are expected to grow their earnings by at least 20% annually over the next five years. Five-star stocks are those that the community, on the whole, believes will outperform the S&P 500.

Let's have the list
Now, with that preamble behind us, here are five more top growth stocks:

Bear in mind that this isn't a list of recommendations. Instead, I offer these stocks as candidates for further research. But, of these five, energy producer Ultra Petroleum interests me most.

In particular, I like its valuation. Ultra trades for 29 times its projected 2008 earnings, not at all unreasonable for a firm growing as fast as it is -- or for a firm with as much long-term opportunity as Ultra appears to possess. Investor knotcutter explains:

US's lowest-cost [natural] gas producer. Huge in-ground reserves not yet on the books. Bringing new production on-line at a furious rate. New pipeline access in '08 should increase their profit margin. Hurricane season coming and predicted to be stronger than last year. Unless oil prices drop significantly or the market corrects strongly, this stock should be a stable performer for the next 6 months or so, and show some legs Q4 '07-Q1 '08.

Intrigued? Do your own due diligence, then check in with thousands of other investors at CAPS. And if you'd like, add your own commentary. You'll be helping your fellow Fools and testing your ideas at the same time. Click here to get started now; the service is 100% free.

See you back here next week for five more top growth stocks.