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

Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM)

$34.90

****

2.86%

$30.20-$40.00

Limited Brands (NYSE:LTD)

$21.96

**

1.76%

$20.73-$32.60

Raytheon (NYSE:RTN)

$65.04

****

1.67%

$48.40-$65.94

Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB)

$36.25

**

1.03%

$34.70-$42.65

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT)

$111.88

****

1.03%

$82.70-$113.74
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Finance, Motley Fool CAPS.

Our top gainer, Archer Daniels Midland, was up on bullish comments from a Citi analyst who said ethanol prices had probably reached bottom. That's interesting, but we Fools prefer buy-to-hold stock stories. Are any of our large-cap leaders worth owning over the next three to five years?

We already know that ADM and Lockheed Martin could be. But so could Raytheon. Those among the more than 65,000 professional and amateur investors in our Motley Fool CAPS database who've rated the defense contractor give it four out of five stars. Here's some of the reasoning behind the rating.

Investor StockSpreadsheet writes:

I think that Raytheon has been doing a lot of things right lately. Even though their sales have been fairly flat for the last 6 years, their [earnings per share] has been going up in each of the last 3 years, and the first quarter results ... continue that improving EPS trend.


All-Star TheCreek adds:

I love defense companies but I really love Raytheon. They produce the top 3 (known to the public) missiles used by the Army, Navy and Air Force: Patriot, Sidewinder, and Tomahawk. They finally sold Raytheon Aircraft to Hawker Beechcraft Corp (a Goldman Sachs company) so they can focus their efforts on missile defense, precision engagement, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and homeland security.

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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