4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Rockwell Automation

Updated

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, industrial automation specialist Rockwell Automation (NYS: ROK) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Rockwell facts

Headquarters (Founded)

Milwaukee (1928)

Market Cap

$10.2 billion

Industry

Electrical components and equipment

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$5.7 billion

Management

Chairman/CEO Keith Nosbusch
CFO Theodore Crandall

Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)

26.3%

Cash/Debt

$1.02 billion / $905 million

Dividend Yield

2.4%

Competitors

ABB (NYS: ABB)
Emerson Electric (NYS: EMR)
General Electric (NYS: GE)

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

On CAPS, 88% of the 258 members who have rated Rockwell believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include hobidan and VandalPride.

Earlier this year, hobidan tapped Rockwell as a particularly strong selection:

Historically a solid performer in industrial automation. Supports sustaining and retooling manufacturing industries. This will continue to do well as US economy recovers.

Over the next five years, in fact, Rockwell is expected to grow its bottom line at a solid rate of 16.4%. That's slightly faster than competitors like ABB (13.8%), Emerson (14.6%), and GE (14.7%).

CAPS member VandalPride offers some inside insight into the bull case:

This is my Peter Lynch pick. As an automation professional the vast majority of control system programmers consider Rockwells Logix platform the best PLC to program by far. Their Human Machine Interfaces (i.e. touchscreens, computer visualization software) is a good as any other I've used (different but not better). They have excellent support services for their products and a relatively easy to use website (compared to some of their competition in the automation field).

What do you think about Rockwell, 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!

Interested in another easy way to trackRockwell?Add it to your watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of ABB and Emerson. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.

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