The CAPS Screen: 5 Financial Powerhouses

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Back in June, our new CAPS screening tool -- which utilizes the collective intelligence of the 115,000 members of the free investment community -- called the demises of Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM), and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER). But keeping in mind that ugly stocks can make great opportunities, I wanted to see if our screener would be equally successful picking attractive financial stocks.

These financial stocks also have:

• Market capitalizations greater than $1 billion.
• At least 300 active picks.
• Five-star ratings, the highest possible, from our CAPS community.

Remember, in the first 20 months for which we have data, CAPS' five-star companies outperformed the market with an average annualized gain of 12%.

Company	Share Price	Market Cap (in billions)
Apollo Investment (Nasdaq: AINV)	$17.77	$2.4
Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM)	$27.47	$15.6
Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL)	$45.30	$1.4
Lloyds (NYSE: LYG)	$20.20	$26.3
Nasdaq OMX (Nasdaq: NDAQ)	$32.20	$6.4

Data from Motley Fool CAPS and Yahoo! Finance as of Sept. 23.

Of course, screens are merely a first step in the stock-selection process. Discerning the dappled from the truly hideous requires due diligence. Come and join us on Motley Fool CAPS to dig into these companies further. Let our 115,000-strong (and counting) CAPS community help you polish your portfolio.

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