Dream Stocks for Tech Investors

Investors are always hunting for the next big stock -- the dream stock whose price increases several times over when the market finally discovers it. It's easy to look back and see what the 10 best stocks of the past decade were. But I'm more interested in the tools that can help me find new stock ideas, and also have the resources necessary to evaluate tomorrow's greatest companies.

There is a tool that offers a variety of resources to help with finding tomorrow's leaders: Motley Fool CAPS, a 125,000-member community of investors helping each other beat the market.

We've enlisted CAPS to screen for tech-related companies and get the story behind some of the more highly rated stocks. CAPS' nifty screener will help us find stocks with:

• A market cap of at least $100 million.
• A three-year revenue growth rate of at least 20%.
• A price-to-earnings ratio of less than 25.
• At least 300 investors making a call on the company.

Then we'll tap the collective intelligence of our CAPS members to see whether these companies present real opportunities -- or whether the numbers fail to tell the true story.

Opinions with the numbers
Below is a sample of stocks our screen returned. If you want to run this screen yourself, click here (keep in mind that results will be updated with the market).

Data and star rankings from CAPS as of Jan. 9.

Vimpel Communications
The steep drop in oil prices has hit Russia's economy hard, but wireless telecom provider VimpelCom managed to keep revenues growing last quarter thanks to new subscribers. The company is a dominant competitor in Russia's wireless industry and in surrounding states, and deals to carry Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerries and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones provide potential for future growth. To deal with a rocky economy, the company is cutting its capital budget and is focused on reducing debt, actions that many CAPS members like to see. Confident in an eventual turnaround, 97% of the 1,301 CAPS members rating VimpelCom expect it to outperform the market.

Cogo Group
It's a good time to be a key supplier of wireless technology and equipment in China, seeing how the government recently awarded the nation's top three carriers licenses to build out massive new networks, Cogo sees additional revenue opportunities in 2009. China is the largest, and one of the fastest-growing, wireless markets in the world, and Cogo's solutions have a good chance of landing in many of the millions of mobile phones forecast to be delivered to consumers in 2009. All the potential for expanding sales gives the company a 25% five-year future growth estimate, and has many CAPS members bullish. Nearly 97% of the 650 members rating Cogo Group expect it to beat the S&P.

Omniture
Omniture is a leader in Web analytics helping businesses drive online marketing and sales across many different industries, with dozens of tier-one customers like eBay and Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL). As more companies move online and make it a key channel in their business, Omniture should see increasing demand for its services. While the company has lacked profitability, it generated positive free cash flow in its most recent quarter, and Broadpoint AmTech Research expects the company to report strong bookings despite the recessionary environment. Nearly 97% of the 1,430 CAPS members rating Omniture are bullish.

Nuance Communications
Speech and imaging solutions provider Nuance Communications has held up better than many others during tough economies because its products help produce cost savings and tangible returns on the investment. The company has completed numerous acquisitions to build out its portfolio, moves that helped it report 41% growth in revenue over last year in its fiscal fourth quarter. Many investors concede that Nuance is a long-term, high-risk investment, but that hasn't kept almost 96% of the 5,597 CAPS members rating the company from voting bullishly.

Let 125,000 investors be the judge
The collective wisdom of a huge pool of investors can help give context to a page of numbers developed through a stock screen. But even with an entire community of qualified opinions acting as the judge, individual investors are still the jury and should perform their own due diligence.

Want to run your favorite parameters through the CAPS screener? It's totally free, including the extensive investor knowledge database of ratings, commentary, and blogs. You can also give your own opinions -- both good and bad -- on any company in Motley Fool CAPS.

Beginning Jan. 12, 2009, Fool co-founder David Gardner, Jeff Fischer, and their Motley Fool Pro team will accept new subscribers to their real-money portfolio service. Motley Fool Pro is investing $1 million of the Fool's own money in long and short positions in a range of securities, including common stocks, put and call options, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). They also incorporate proprietary CAPS "community intelligence" data into their research. To learn more about Motley Fool Pro and to receive a private invitation to join, simply enter your email address in the box below.