Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, oil and natural gas company Linn Energy (Nasdaq: LINE) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Linn facts

Headquarters (Founded) Houston (2003)
Market Cap $6.67 billion
Industry Oil and gas exploration and production
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $939.5 million
Management

CEO Mark Ellis 

CFO Kolja Rockov
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) 4.6%
Cash/Debt $69.8 million / $3.05 billion
Dividend Yield 7.3%

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS. 

On CAPS, 97.5% of the 930 members who have rated Linn believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include pchop123 and NCRICK. 

Earlier this month, pchop123 succinctly summed up Linn's investment appeal: "Promise & yield in a rare combination."

Over the past five years, in fact, Linn has grown its top line at a whopping rate of 69.5% annually. That's much faster than industry peers like Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) (11.8%), Apache (NYSE: APA) (12.1%), and Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE: CNQ) (2.4%).

CAPS member NCRICK elaborates on the bull case:

I'm a dividend investor so I look to reliable dividends which LINE has provided. I believe any company that can continue to pay high dividends will experience at least some reasonable capital gains as well. ... I continue to buy on pull backs. I do keep my profit protected with stop losses however. Despite what happens in Washington, this country needs fossil fuels for the forseeable future and LINN and others are positioned to provide it.

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