The CAPS Screen: 5 Financial Powerhouses

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With the Financial Select Sector SPDR down nearly 40% over the past year, it goes without saying that financial stocks haven't been getting much love lately. Some ticking time bomb stocks like MBIA (NYSE: MBI) and Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq: FITB) have gotten hammered even more -- perhaps with good reason. But keep in mind that the healthy financial companies no one wants to touch may prove that ugly stocks make great opportunities.

With that in mind, I used our new CAPS screening tool to look for the most attractive stocks in the financial sector.

They 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 year for which we have data, CAPS' five-star companies outperformed the market with an average gain of nearly 28%.

Company	Share Price	Market Cap (in billions)
AFLAC (NYSE: AFL)	$66.52	$31.6
Harvest Energy Trust (NYSE: HTE)	$24.87	$3.8
ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN)	$35.28	$19.6
Montpelier RE (NYSE: MRH)	$16.33	$1.5
Penn West Energy Trust (NYSE: PWE)	$33.36	$12.5

Data from Motley Fool CAPS and Yahoo! Finance as of June 12.

Of course, screens are merely a first step in the stock-selection process. Discerning merely blemished stocks from their truly hideous brethren requires due diligence. Come and join us on Motley Fool CAPS to dig into these companies further. Our 105,000-strong (and counting) CAPS community can help you polish your portfolio.

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• The Biggest Economic Opportunity of the 21st Century
• The CAPS Screen: 5 Warren Buffett Stocks
• Throw This Stock Away