5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Noble

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 110,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, offshore drilling contractor Noble (NYSE: NE) has earned a coveted five-star ranking. Our data has shown that five-star stocks outperform the market by a significant margin; conversely, one-star stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

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

Noble facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Sugar Land, Texas (1921)
Market Cap	$14.11 billion
Industry	Oil and gas drilling
TTM Revenue	$3.21 billion
Management	CEO David Williams; CFO Thomas Mitchell
Return on Equity (avg. last three years)	24.9%
CAPS members bullish on NE also bullish on	Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE: DO)
CAPS members bearish on NE also bearish on	Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN), Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) (NYSE: CMG-B), Dell (Nasdaq: DELL)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, fully 619 of 623 of the All-Star members who have rated Noble -- some 99% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include alvinbentley and JSB8000, both of whom are ranked in the top 5% of our community.

In April, alvinbentley noted, "As the demand for oil increases, deep water drilling becomes increasingly important. Noble will be able to take advantage of this trend because of their expertise in deep water drilling."

An earlier pitch from JSB8000 in 2007 shared that bullish sentiment, putting Noble in the same deepwater boat as yet another five-star offshore driller:

Noble (NE) and Transocean (RIG) are the crown jewels of the deepwater drilling world, which energy experts expect to experience continued rapid growth through the end of the decade. Because of their long term contracts and substantial order backlogs, both companies are unlikely to be affected by month to month fluctuations in energy prices. Since the era of easy-to-find, cheap oil & gas is over, the future looks bright for deepwater drillers with limited competition, like NE & RIG.

What do you think about Noble -- or any other stock, for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 110,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.