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 wireless specialist NII Holdings (NASDAQ:NIHD), which fell more than 6% 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:

1. Businesses that make investors billions always begin as growth stocks.
2. The best of them feature massive and identifiable competitive advantages.
3. 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, it's oil and gas explorer Continental that interests me most.

That's not an easy thing to say. Yesterday Continental reported lower earnings on higher revenue. A $7.8 million loss related to the value of crude oil futures was partly to blame. But higher costs were also at issue: gross margin fell to 79.8% from 82.7% last year.

Even so, Continental's management has a history of producing returns on capital in excess of 25% -- a remarkable number in any market and well above peers Abraxas Petroleum and Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK), which is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. Mix in a positively microscopic 0.18 PEG ratio and I get very interested.

And I'm not alone. Here's how CAPS All-Star HatchingPlans pitched the stock in August:

I don't like the oil sector anymore, but I do like the solid fundamentals here. As the market starts to recover, stable high-growth companies like this one will outperform like crazy and get on their feet first. [Continental] has a lot of room to grow.

Intrigued? Do your due diligence and 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.