Each day, The Wall Street Journal publishes a list of large-cap winners. Here are Thursday's best:

Company

Currently Fetching

CAPS Rating

% Change

52-Week Range

SLM (NYSE:SLM)

$49.12

**

9.13%

$40.30 - 58.00

Emerson Electric (NYSE:EMR)

$53.37

*****

3.49%

$41.01 - 53.44

CSX (NYSE:CSX)

$42.67

****

2.89%

$32.32 - 51.88

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX)

$106.80

*****

2.78%

$47.60 - 110.60

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

$172.58

***

2.28%

$139.20 - 180.30
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Finance, Motley Fool CAPS.

Our top gainer, SLM, which we know as student loan specialist Sallie Mae, was up on buyout rumors. That's interesting, but we Fools want buy-to-hold stock stories. Are any of our large-cap leaders worth owning over the next three to five years?

We already know Emerson Electric could be. But so could gold and copper miner Freeport-McMoRan. The more than 65,000 professional and amateur investors following FCX in our Motley Fool CAPS database give it five stars. Here's some of the reasoning behind the rating. 

CAPS All-Star SokorScout writes:

Even before merging with [Phelps Dodge], [Freeport-McMoRan] was a sleeping giant well positioned for the upward movement of copper ... With geographical presence in the Asian growth phenomenon, the addition of [Phelps Dodge] will not only provide product diversity, but also further global diversity, as well.

Investor camistocks adds:

78% of [Freeport-McMoRan's] expected output is now copper, while 12% is molybdenum, and only 10% is gold! Goldbugs might be disappointed, but Freeport had already made 75% of last year's profit from copper and only 25% from gold. As a hard asset bull I still like the stock...

Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think by signing up for CAPS today. It's 100% free to participate.

See you back here tomorrow for more of the best of the biggest.

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