The next top growth stock

By The Motley Fool

Growth stocks are the beauties of the stock world, plain and simple. They're exciting, they have good stories and can make you a lot of money.

But for all their beauty, growth stocks are also the prima donnas of the market. They can be erratic, they don't always live up to their billing and they tend to attract a shareholder base that's ready to run at the first sign of slowdown.

For those reasons, caution is often wise when you enter the world of growth investing.

Fortunately, the MSN CAPS service is the repository of the intelligence of more than 130,000 investors, making our community a great resource for separating the Jessica Albas from the Jabba the Hutts.

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CAPS offers a variety of tools to help investors. The organizing principle behind the 130,000-member community is that collective estimates are often superior to the judgments of most individuals, and that a system that incorporates the knowledge, information and skills of the many can help the individual beat the market.

The names under consideration as this week's top growth stock were identified with CAPS' handy stock screening tool. Each company has a market cap of at least $100 million and grew its annual net profit per share by an average of 20% or more over the past three years.

Still growing

Company	Sector	Forward P/E ratio	2009 change
Enterprise Products Partners	Oil and natural gas	13.5	19%
Potash of Saskatchewan	Fertilizer	8.3	27%
Shanda Interactive	Online games	14.2	53%
Amazon.com	Online retail	39.1	55%
Research In Motion	Wireless communications	15.8	81%

Let's learn more about our candidates:

Enterprise Products Partners (EPD, news, msgs) is in the business of processing, storing and transporting oil and natural gas. While international behemoths like Exxon Mobil (XOM, news, msgs) and deep-water drillers such as Transocean (RIG, news, msgs) draw most of the attention, there's much more going on in the industry.

While pump stations and salt domes may not excite the imagination, Enterprise Partners has shown that boring can be beautiful. The Houston company has steadily grown its asset base while maintaining a manageable balance sheet. And the stock features a nice 8.6% dividend yield.

Potash of Saskatchewan (POT, news, msgs) is the world's biggest supplier of potash, a fertilizer component. As the world population grows and arable land gets stretched, it's becoming ever more important for farmers to use every tool at their disposal to increase yields.

Potash, which is also the third-biggest producer of two other fertilizers, phosphates and nitrogen, is well-positioned to satisfy growing agricultural demand.

Amazon.com (AMZN, news, msgs) was founded in 1994 exclusively to sell books on the Web, but it has morphed into one of the nation's most prominent retailers, purveying a wide variety of wares online.

The proliferation of new product offerings has attracted new customers and helped the company nearly double its earnings between 2005 and 2008. First-quarter results demonstrated the Seattle company's ability to grow right through the recession.

Shanda Interactive Entertainment (SNDA, news, msgs) is one of China's largest creators of online games. Based on its year-end results, it appears that many people in China are dealing with the global slowdown by hopping on their computers for some serious gaming action.

Fourth-quarter revenue was up 42%, and profits jumped 17%. The results only reinforced Shanda's growth binge, which has sent revenue skyrocketing 175% over the past four years.

Research In Motion (RIMM, news, msgs) could be considered king of the hill in the North American market for smart phones, Apple (AAPL, news, msgs) and its iPhone notwithstanding.

The company's BlackBerry devices have such a lock on corporate users that it would almost have to make a determined effort to fail. The recession has failed to derail the Waterloo, Ontario, company, which has seen earnings per share nearly triple since 2007.

The envelope, please

With each of these companies putting up impressive numbers, let's tap the collective intelligence of the CAPS community to determine which company has the best growth prospects today.

Each stock's CAPS page is a launching pad to a wealth of information. Get a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made. Turn to member blogs for insight and opinion.

CAPS members tend to be sticklers for valuation, and both Amazon.com and Research In Motion sport pretty healthy price points.

There are some pretty convincing Shanda bulls on CAPS, and its three-star rating compares favorably to the two stars affixed to Research In Motion and Amazon. Still, the stock has received too many red thumbs to reach top-tier territory.

Potash's financial results are expected to dip this year, but that hasn't deterred CAPS participants. The community buys into the long-term potential of the agriculture sector; the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, company has earned a four-star ranking at CAPS and more than 4,400 outperform ratings from participants.

However, Potash's four stars aren't sufficient to give it an edge over this week's top growth stock -- Enterprise Products Partners. Shares of the company have notched 775 outperform ratings against a paltry 15 underperform ratings, securing a perfect five-star status for the stock.

Why are CAPS members gaga over this company? The comments of "Tachtician" offered some insight.

"As much as I like solar and wind and pretty much any alternative, we aren't going to be done with oil and gas anytime soon," the CAPS participant wrote. "Beyond that, whether oil and gas prices are high or low, (it needs to be moved) . . . and these guys get paid to do just that."

Do you think that Enterprise Products Partners has what it takes to be America's next top growth stock? Head over to CAPS and let the rest of the community know what you think.

This article was reported by Matt Koppenheffer for The Motley Fool.