4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Boingo Wireless

Updated

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, mobile Wi-Fi solutions specialist Boingo Wireless (NAS: WIFI) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

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

Boingo facts

Headquarters (Founded)

Los Angeles (2001)

Market Cap

$273.2 million

Industry

Alternative carriers

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$90.1 million

Management

CEO David Hagan (since 2004)
CFO Ed Zinser (since 2008)

Trailing-12-Month Return on Equity

16.2%

Cash/Debt

$87.2 million / $90,000

Competitors

AT&T (NYS: T)
Cablevision Systems (NYS: CVC)
Comcast (NAS: CMCSA)

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

On CAPS, 95% of the 79 members who have rated Boingo believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Star Rondo1260, who is ranked in the top 15% of our community, and TMFBiggles.

This past summer, Rondo1260 touched on the trends working in Boingo's favor:

People hate throttling from phone carriers. I sure do. I want [Wi-Fi] all the time everywhere and I think that day is coming fast. ... [S]omeone has to start the ball rolling in that direction.

Boingo even sports a comforting debt-to-equity ratio of 0.1%. That's much lower than that of gorilla rivals like AT&T (63%) and Comcast (65%), and clearly gives Boingo a better balance sheet than Cablevision, which has extensive debt and negative shareholder equity.

CAPS member TMFBiggles elaborates on the Boingo bull case:

While some people might say on-demand WiFi is supplanted by cell service, the reality is that cell carriers are all going to throttle heavy data use, and people who need access to data will bump up against the limitations of the data throttling. Even ISPs have begun to throttle some data.

The case for Boingo is that the major data providers (ISPs and cell carriers) will remain behind the curve as data use continues to grow at an exponential rate among the connected populace. If you believe that to be true, Boingo has a very compelling expectation for future growth.

The major downside risk will be developments of new connecting technology -- faster cables or better transmission protocols or something I can't even imagine yet -- but the mass adoption of such technologies will be years off. In the meantime, Boingo is profitable and has a market niche largely to itself, which is more than you can say of many of the IPOs coming out this year.

What do you think about Boingo, 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 trackBoingo?Add it to your watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. 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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