Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, medical device giant Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Baxter facts

Headquarters (founded)

Deerfield, Ill. (1931)

Market Cap

$33.86 billion

Industry

Health care equipment

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$13.2 billion

Management

Chairman/CEO Robert Parkinson Jr. (since 2004)

CFO Robert Hombach (since 2010)

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

29.3%

Cash/Debt

$2.17 billion / $4.38 billion

Dividend Yield

2.1%

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

On CAPS, 95% of the 660 members who have rated Baxter believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include frankinCA and CottonSwab.

Late last year , frankinCA touched on the trends working in Baxter's favor: "It is another beneficiary of the healthcare and is a low cost provider of hospital IV products that are essential."

Currently, Baxter even sports a cheapish forward P/E of 12.7. That represents a slight discount to other medical device stocks such as Becton Dickinson (NYSE: BDX) (14.3), Covidien (NYSE: COV) (13.3), and Stryker (NYSE: SYK) (15.4).

CAPS member CottonSwab elaborates on the bull case:

Baxter is a provider of products and services that are "medically necessary" for many different types of patients. In many of these sectors, Baxter is an industry leader.

I expect long term sales growth and margins to remain fairly steady over the long term as Baxter expands in emerging markets where medical service has been non-existent or outdated. In many emerging economies, health care appears to lag industrial production.

Therefore, I think Baxter offers little downside and moderate upside.

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