The market had quite a run over a three-month time span, sold off for a bit, then roared back to march higher over the last week. While rising prices wiped out some of the most appealing valuations seen in decades, this surge in stock prices doesn't mean you've missed the boat. And it shouldn't deter you from making a wish list of stocks you'd like to snag for your own portfolio.
If this truly is the beginning of a new bull market, then there's still more room to run from here. And if it's simply a fierce bear-market rally, then a pullback will correct prices. Last week we saw accumulation -- buying on high volume. This is a strong sign that investors are beginning to commit capital to stocks, and a vote for the market moving higher. Either way, if you research and build a list of stocks you'd want to own, you'll simply need to wait until each stock reaches your preferred price to pounce. The volatility in this environment should provide you opportunities to do exactly that.
To start assembling my very own stock wish list, I used the Fool's CAPS screener to find premium companies such as Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), which has outperformed the market by a hefty 100 percentage points over the past 10 years.
To screen for some of the market's best stocks, I used the following criteria:
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, our CAPS community's highest rank.You can review my results in full if you like, but here are some of the highlights:
Company
Market Cap (in billions)
Current Ratio
Return on Equity (TTM)
Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE)
$16.4
5
15
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY)
$39.4
2.3
41.3
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL)
$36.7
1.2
113
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS)
$98.3
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