After spending much of the past six months at a four-star rank, medical-equipment specialist Accuray (Nasdaq: ARAY) has impressed enough top-performing members of our 160,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community to once again touch the five-star level recently. A total of 549 members have given their opinion on the company, with many of them offering analysis and commentary explaining the recent optimism.

The maker of the advanced CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery system has seen a pickup in orders as more users adopt the technology, leading to more bullish CAPS calls lately. In its second fiscal quarter, the company boosted its backlog by 18 orders and installed 11 new systems, bringing its installed base around the world to 190 systems. On top of the success in new orders and placements, Accuray reported a big jump in service revenue, which it expects will continue to grow as its installed base of CyberKnife units grows worldwide. Similar to the brighter outlooks coming from medical-device and medical-equipment makers Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) and Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), Accuray raised the lower end of its revenue guidance for the fiscal year.

While larger medical-device maker Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) has been trying to recover from several adverse events that have sent its shares into a tailspin, Accuray's stock has gotten off to a strong start for the first few months of the year, albeit in a volatile fashion. Ratings company Moody's recently said it expects a gradual recovery in equipment spending by hospitals and sees the medical-products and medical-device sector poised for stable growth. The potential improvement should bode well for sales at Accuray, as well as for other companies offering devices and equipment, including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT), Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG), and Volcano. With the small-cap company's strong balance sheet and lots of potential to grow CyberKnife sales in the long run, CAPS members like the possibilities here.

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