4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Cree

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 115,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, LED light maker Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) has earned a respected four-star ranking. Five-star stocks have been the best performers, but our data has shown that four-star stocks still outshine the market by a significant margin and shouldn't be taken lightly; conversely, low-rated stocks have woefully lagged the market average.

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

Cree facts

Headquarters (founded)	Durham, N.C. (1987)
Market cap	$2.06 billion
Industry	Semiconductor Equipment and Materials
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$493.3 million
Management	CEO Charles Swoboda (since 2001) CFO John Kurtzweil (since 2006)
Major Competitors	Honeywell International (NYSE: HON), II-VI (Nasdaq: IIVI)
CAPS members bullish on CREE also bullish on:	Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
CAPS members bearish on CREE also bearish on:	Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU)

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

Over on CAPS, fully 176 of 197 of the All-Star members who have rated Cree -- some 89% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These All-Star bulls include CaptBeer and Kinzo, both of whom are ranked in the top 1% of our community.

In June 2007, CaptBeer noted that Cree "has the best white-light LED technology, the necessary manufacturing expertise, and now they have a subsidiary in -- you guessed it -- China, which is really supercharging their white-light LED sales."

A pitch from Kinzo back in January agreed with that bullish sentiment and shed a little more LED light on Cree's potential:

Congress recently passed a law that will phase out all incandescent light bulbs by 2014. There is of course the new CFL (compact [fluorescent] lightbulb). They do save energy, but contain an unhealthy amount of mercury. A bigger concern for the consumer is that even though they last 3 times as longer and use only 1/5 the energy, they're almost 6 times as expensive!
So what's the alternative? CANDLES!

Just kidding. For this answer [I] look at the little flash light on my keychain. What is it? Why the LED bulb of course! And who makes this product? Cree Inc is one of the only LED producers that are publicly traded and therefore could potentially be a huge value. Hooray for LED's!

What do you think about Cree, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 115,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so why not get started?