Oracle, McDonald's, Baxter: Top 5 Stocks

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BOSTON (TheStreet) -- These companies have market caps higher than $10 billion and "buy" ratings from our proprietary quantitative model, which considers more than 60 factors. The stocks are ordered by their potential to appreciate.

Colgate-Palmolive(CL Quote) makes personal products, such as toothpaste and soap.

The numbers: Second-quarter revenue declined 6% to $3.7 billion, but net income increased 14% to $561 million, or $1.07 a share. Its operating margin improved from 21% to 24% and its net margin jumped from 12% to 15%. Colgate-Palmolive has a less-than-ideal liquidity position, with $928 million of cash and a quick ratio of 0.8. And a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.5 indicates excessive leverage. The company's focus on consumer staples helps it weather economic ups and downs, which is evident in its seven-quarter streak of per-share earnings growth.

The stock: Colgate-Palmolive has gained 5% this year, underperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18 and offers a 2.5% dividend yield, which is below the S&P 500 average.

Oracle(ORCL Quote) sells database and networking software to businesses.

The numbers: Fiscal fourth-quarter net income fell 7% to $1.9 billion as revenue declined 5% to $6.9 billion. Earnings per share decreased just 3%, helped by a lower share count. The operating margin improved to 43% as the net margin dropped to 28%. The company holds $13 billion of cash reserves, amounting to an impressive quick ratio of 1.9. And its debt-to-equity ratio is conservative at 0.4. Oracle will benefit from a rebound in tech spending in the coming months.