Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we examine some of these picks -- and the track records of the firms behind them -- so individuals can make better investing decisions.

In addition to following professional banks, anyone can use Motley Fool CAPS to monitor the collective opinions of more than 92,000 investors -- many of whom demonstrate better investing insight than published analysts.

In the case of biotech giant Genentech (NYSE: DNA), enough investors in the CAPS community have recently gone bullish on the stock to push its rating from four stars to the (highest) coveted five-star ranking. And the various resources of CAPS can be used to find what's behind the recent optimism.

While even bottom-of-the-barrel Wall Street firms have gone bullish on Genetech recently, the optimism is backed by the vast majority of more than 1,500 investors rating Genentech. Along with cheering the FDA's approval of its Avastin drug, investors have cheered reported progress in development of new uses for its Rituxan compound, which is sold with partner Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB).

Like cancer drug developer Exelixis (Nasdaq: EXEL), Genentech also gets high marks for prospects in its efforts to develop new cancer compounds. Many investors note that despite macroeconomic conditions, the best cancer therapies -- which often contain a cocktail of drugs -- will remain in high demand. And with a solid balance sheet and a promising pipeline, some investors find Genentech to be a better value than peers such as Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) and Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG).

One major benefit of the CAPS investor community is that its membership includes many scientists, doctors, and users of pharmaceutical drugs, who report their experiences with these products. To see what the very best CAPS analysts are saying now about Genentech -- as well as other stocks they are picking today -- head on over to CAPS and have a look. The community research and resources in CAPS are totally free, unlike analyst opinions reserved for paying clients.

For more Foolishness: