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 discover the 10 best stocks of the past decade. But I'm more interested in the tools that can help me evaluate tomorrow's greatest companies.

Motley Fool CAPS offers a variety of resources to aid Fools in finding tomorrow's leaders. Our 135,000-member community is full of investors helping each other beat the market.

We'll enlist CAPS to screen for value stocks, then get the story behind some of its more highly rated companies. CAPS' nifty screener will help us find stocks with:

  • A market cap of at least $1 billion.
  • A long term debt-to-equity ratio of less than 0.5.
  • A current ratio of at least 1.
  • A price-to-earnings ratio of less than 15.

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 are just a few of many stocks our screen returned. You can run this screen yourself -- remember, though, that your results may differ from ours as the market changes.

Company

P/E Ratio

LT Debt-to-Equity Ratio

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Corning (NYSE:GLW)

5.9

.13

*****

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

12.3

.18

*****

Titanium Metals (NYSE:TIE)

14.1

0

*****

Data and star rankings from CAPS as of June 12.

Corning
Surprisingly, the dismal economy that shattered Corning's LCD glass products business late last year hasn't kept consumers at bay for long. Flat-panel makers cut back orders late last year as inventories built up, and Corning's first-quarter sales and earnings both fell hard. But demand has been growing again lately. Corning anticipates a much-improved second quarter, and it recently raised its glass sales guidance because of growth in LCD TV sales in the U.S. Overall, Corning expects global LCD TV sales to grow 18% this year.

According to research firm iSuppli, sales of new flat-panel TVs in the U.S. and Canada have been increasing, growing 17% in the first quarter, though customers tend to favor discount deals at stores such as Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT). After capturing a big piece of the glass-fiber and LCD glass markets, Corning is working on technologies that will lead the next bull market, and hopes its new touchscreen glass for electronic devices and other innovations will yield significant additional sources of revenue. Corning has strong support in CAPS; 97% of the 3,285 members who've rated the company expect it to outperform the market.

Johnson & Johnson
Many investors consider Johnson & Johnson a solid long-term investment, thanks to its excellent fundamentals and large portfolio of products that consumers need on a daily basis. The company's net profit margin and return on equity rank among the upper echelon of its peers, including Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and Pfizer. Its financial strength even allowed the company to recently increase its dividend, while many other companies are slashing theirs to conserve cash.

J&J also has lots of future growth opportunity in its drug candidates. It continues to work on beefing up its drug pipeline, including recent news that it plans to acquire Cougar Biotechnology, which will add new potential cancer treatments to its arsenal. J&J's follow-on arthritis drug Simponi recently gained FDA approval as well. Its long history of success and diversity of strength has nearly 97% of the 12,048 CAPS members who've rated Johnson & Johnson still bullish on the stock today.

Titanium Metals
A large part of Titanium Metals' sales come from the commercial aerospace sector, which hasn't exactly been firing on all cylinders lately. Yet despite the struggling economy and delays from Boeing (NYSE:BA) on its 787 Dreamliner, CAPS members anticipate an increase in demand for the company's titanium products over the coming years. Titanium Metals has a debt-free balance sheet and has produced positive operating cash flow for the past several quarters. That strong fiscal management will be a big advantage in helping the company get through the recession. Nearly 97% of the 2,318 CAPS members who've rated Titanium Metals think the stock just makes sense.

Let 135,000 members be the jury
The collective wisdom of a huge pool of investors can help give context to a page of numbers from a stock screen -- but individual investors are still the best judge. Fools should always perform their own due diligence.

Run your favorite factors through the Motley Fool CAPS screener. It's totally free, and we think you'll like the results.