STOCK PICKS: Top 5 Large-Cap for Oct. 8

Based on this, the company set its third-quarter guidance to be between 73 cents and 76 cents per share and raised its full fiscal year guidance to a range of $3.43 to $3.50 per share. While the company has had generally poor debt management on most measures we evaluated, we feel that Wal-Mart's strengths outweigh any weaknesses, and we believe that its stock price should continue to move higher despite having already enjoyed a nice gain in the past year.

Our quantitative rating is based on a variety of historical fundamental and pricing data and represents our opinion of a stock's risk-adjusted performance relative to other stocks.

However, the rating does not incorporate all of the factors that can alter a stock's performance. For example, it doesn't always factor in recent corporate or industry events that could affect the stock price, nor does it include recent technology developments and competitive dynamics that may affect the company.

For those reasons, we believe a rating alone cannot tell the whole story and should be part of an investor's overall research.