5 All-Star Stocks to Make Your Portfolio Shine

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Soon, children in every corner of the country will be writing their wish lists for Santa Claus. Why not begin putting your own wish list together? Not only for your stocking, but for your stocks, too.

The market has been nothing short of tumultuous lately, making it increasingly difficult to invest. While institutional investors facing massive redemptions are forced to make rapid trades, individual investors like you don't have to do that. Instead, you can take advantage of this selloff to research quality names. Then, when the market reverses course, you'll be ready to take advantage of some good buys.

I used the Fool's CAPS screener to find premium companies such as 3M (NYSE: MMM) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) -- both of which have outperformed the market by more than eight percentage points on average annually over the past 10 years.

To screen for some of the best-in-class in the market, I used the following criteria:

• Market caps greater than $10 billion, which suggests stability.
• A current ratio of at least 1, to ensure sufficient liquidity to meet current liabilities.
• Return on equity north of 15%, to demonstrate efficiency and profitability.
• Five-star ratings, the highest possible, from CAPS. (In the first 20 months since we began tracking stocks in CAPS, five-star stocks have handily outperformed, with an average annualized gain of more than 12%.)

Here's what the screen turned up:

Company	Market Cap (in billions)	Sector	Current Ratio	Return on Equity (TTM)
ABB (NYSE: ABB)	$20.9	Industrial Goods	1.6	35%
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL)	$30.5	Consumer Goods	1.3	82%
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP)	$62.3	Basic Materials	1.0	21%
Petrobras (NYSE: PBR)	$27.6	Basic Materials	1.4	21%
Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM)	$74.1	Consumer Goods	1.3	52%

Data from Motley Fool CAPS as of Nov. 20.

While the CAPS screen pops out many different companies, this should only be a first step in your stock research. Come join our CAPS online investment community to delve further into these companies and see if they're right for your portfolio.

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• Five All-Star Stocks Fighting the Tide