Top 5 Large-Cap Stocks for May 27

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, large-cap stocks are in the spotlight. These are stocks of companies with market capitalizations of over $10 billion that rank near the top of all stocks rated by our proprietary quantitative model, which looks at more than 62 factors. In addition, the stocks must be followed by at least one financial analyst who posts estimates on the Institutional Brokers' Estimate System. The stocks 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.

Enterprise Products Partners(EPD Quote) is a midstream energy company that provides services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil and petrochemicals in the U.S., Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. We recently upgraded this stock to a buy in April 2009 based on several positive investment measures, the strongest of which is the company's expanding profit margins.

Enterprise continues to deal with the effects of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, but posted a record gross operating margin in the first quarter of fiscal 2009 despite the lingering difficulties. At the same time, NGL, crude oil, and petrochemical transportation volumes were a record 2.2 million barrels per day. The company's gross profit margin is rather low, but it has managed to increase from the same period last year. In addition, a net profit margin of 6.6% compares favorably with the industry average.