Top 5 All-Around-Value Stocks for Nov. 11

Each business day, TheStreet.com Ratings compiles a list of the top five stocks in one of five categories -- fast-growth, all-around value, large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap - based on data from the close of the previous trading session. Today, all-around-value stocks are in the spotlight.

These are stocks of companies that meet a number of criteria, including annual revenue of more than $500 million, lower-than-average valuations such as a price-to-sales ratio of less than 2, and leverage that is less than 49% of total capital.

In addition, they must rank near the top of all stocks rated by our proprietary quantitative model, which looks at more than 60 factors. The stocks must also be followed by at least one financial analyst who posts estimates on the Institutional Brokers' Estimate System. They are ordered by their potential to appreciate.

Note that no provision is made for off-balance-sheet assets such as unrealized appreciation/depreciation of investments, market value of real estate or contingent liabilities that might affect book value. This could be material for some companies with large, underfunded pension plans.

Kroger(KR) is one of the nation's largest grocery retailers. Our buy rating for Kroger has been in place since March 2006. Although the company has generally had poor debt management, we feel that the rating is justified due to strengths such as the company's earnings per share growth, revenue growth and increase in net income.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2008, the company reported revenue growth of 11.9% year over year. This growth appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, helping to boost EPS by 10.5%. EPS rose from 38 cents in the second quarter of fiscal 2007 to 42 cents in the most recent quarter. Net income also grew during the second quarter, improving 3.5% from $2.76 billion to $2.77 billion.