Top 5 Large-Cap Stocks for June 17

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.

Medco Health Solutions(MHS Quote) is one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers, providing sophisticated traditional and specialty pharmacy benefit programs and services for clients, members of client-funded benefit plans and individual patients. We have rated the company a buy since December 2008. This rating is supported by several positive factors, including its growth, notable return on equity and good cash flow from operations.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2009, Medco reported revenue growth of 14.4% year over year, which beat the industry average of 1.1%. Earnings per share apparently benefitted from this growth, improving 16% when compared with the same quarter of last year. We feel that the company's trend of positive EPS growth should continue. Net income also increased, rising 7.7% from $270.2 million to $291 million. Medco's net operating cash flow increased 607.12% over the prior year's quarter and surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 52.06%. An additional modest strength for the company is its return on equity, which improved slightly when compared to the first quarter of last year.