Top 5 All-Around-Value Stocks for May 19

Each business day, TheStreet.com Ratings TheStreet.com Ratings compiles a list of the top five stocks in 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. Silgan Holdings(SLGN Quote) manufactures metal and plastic consumer goods packaging products, including metal food containers, vacuum closures for food and beverage products and high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers for the personal care market. Our buy rating for this stock has been in place since May 2004. The rating is based on such strengths as the company's growth, efficiency and return on equity.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2009, Silgan reported a slight drop in revenue, which does not seem to have affected the company's bottom line. Earnings per share improved 30.9% year over year, and we feel that Silgan's recent trend of positive EPS growth should continue. Net income also improved 30.9% in the first quarter, rising from $21.16 million to $27.7 million. Although the company posted a rather low gross profit margin of 20.3%, it has managed to increase the gross profit margin when compared to the same quarter last year, and its net profit margin of 4.2% compares favorably to the industry average. In addition, return on equity improved slightly in the first quarter, rising from 22.33% to 25.71%, and can be viewed as a modest strength for the organization.