Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, semiconductor company IXYS (Nasdaq: IXYS) has earned a respected five-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at IXYS' business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

IXYS facts

Headquarters (Founded) Milpitas, Calif. (1987)
Market Cap $316.6 million
Industry Semiconductors
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $279.2 million
Management Founder/CEO Dr. Nathan Zommer
CFO Uzi Sasson
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) 3.3%
Cash/Debt $57.4 million / $35 million
Competitors International Rectifier (NYSE: IRF)
Silicon Labs (Nasdaq: SLAB)
ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN)
RF Micro Devices (Nasdaq: RFMD)

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 94% of the 308 members who have rated IXYS believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Stars Trimalerus and UltraLong, both of whom are ranked in the top 1% of our community.

This past summer, Trimalerus tapped IXYS as a particularly powerful choice: "Our Power Infrastructure in need of a smart grid overhaul. With Obama as Pres. we should see robust growth in this sector in the next few years. This company is well poised to ride the green tide of change toward our sustainable future."

As a small-cap specialist in power conversion efficiency, IXYS remains one of our community's more "under-the-radar" green energy plays. At a PEG of just 0.4 -- a discount to rivals International Rectifier (0.9), Silicon Labs (0.7), ON (0.5), and RF Micro (0.6) -- IXYS certainly looks like a cheap way to go for growth. With IXYS doing particularly well of late, CAPS All-Star UltraLong thinks the stock offers a timely opportunity:

They announced a 2 million share buyback about 6 weeks ago. Revenues are growing in the 40-60% range per quarter, profit margins are up 12%-16% over last year, backlogs are at record levels, they have tons of cash on hand and they look to be in a ridiculously drawn out but ready to break ascending triangle. Outside of that IXYS is just rather ho-hum.

Analysts haven't factored in the EPS boost that the share buyback will allow IXYS, and they don't understand how strong that backlog is. ... Minimum price target would be $13.30 but it has the potential to go considerably higher.

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