Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, silver explorer Pan American Silver (Nasdaq: PAAS) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Pan American facts

Headquarters (Founded) Vancouver, Canada (1979)
Market Cap $3.7 billion
Industry Precious metals and minerals
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $768 million
Management

CEO Geoffrey Burns (since 2004)

CFO Robert Doyle (since 2004)
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) 8.2%
Cash/Debt $461 million / $33.6 million
Competitors

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP)

Buenaventura

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

On CAPS, 95% of the 1,044 members who have rated Pan American believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Star Staka, who is ranked in the top 2% of our community, and idvst8.

Just last week, Staka listed a few of Pan American's positives:

- A play on the currency devaluation story based on negative real interest rates
- Not expensive, not overextended
- Reasonable debt

In fact, Pan American sports a paltry debt-to-equity of 2.2%. That's much lower than that of other mining plays such as BHP (27.5%), Coeur d'Alene (NYSE: CDE) (9.1%), and Vale (NYSE: VALE) (32%).

CAPS member idvst8 elaborates on the Pan American bull case:

Very solid play in the Silver space. ... Great asset base, with growing production and loads of profits coming down the pike for years to come. PAAS is a great way to play the price of silver, and all the miners are lagging the overall higher prices of precious metals that they all produce. As the early fall approaches, I fully expect the mining sector to retest the earlier 2011 levels, and continue to set new highs. The market will not be able to ignore the booming profits that the majority of the major miners are set to announce for the 2nd quarter.

What do you think about Pan American, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!

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