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|  | MAY 6, 2005
 STOCK SCREENS By Michael Kaye, CFA Armor-Plating Your PortfolioThis week's screen looks for the heartiest of the hearty: Strong companies with Triple-A credit ratingsCompanies with triple-A credit ratings, which numbered in the dozens a few decades ago, are a vanishing breed (see BW Online, 3/11/05, "Decline and Fall of the Triple-A"). Chalk it up to changing market conditions and a more relaxed corporate attitude toward the use of leverage. And the number continues to dwindle. Indeed, in recent months, corporate icons Merck (MRK ) and American International Group (AIG ) were downgraded from triple-A by S&P Ratings Services. SOLID STOCKS. What's the big deal about a triple-A rating? Well, that's the highest category of investment-grade credit ratings -- meaning that the companies with that designation have the strongest ability to service their debt. A debt-issuing company with a triple-A score "has extremely strong capacity to meet its financial commitments", according to S&P. That's nice for bondholders, you may say, but isn't the name of this column Stock Screens? Well, in the current volatile market environment, equity investors may wish to latch onto stocks with strong businesses and armor-plated balance sheets. (It must be emphasized here that S&P credit ratings are a measure of a company's ability to repay principal and interest on its debt, and not an indication of its merits as an investment.) That was the thinking behind this week's screen. We did a simple search for publicly traded U.S.-based companies which carry triple-A debt ratings from Standard & Poor's. Here are the nine names that turned up. Some of them may sound familiar:
 Kaye is an analyst for Standard & Poor's Portfolio Advisors All of the views expressed in this research report accurately reflect the research analyst's personal views regarding any and all of the subject securities or issuers. No part of analyst compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this research report. Standard & Poor's Regulatory Disclosure Any advice, analysis, or recommendations contained in articles labeled "Insight from Standard & Poor's" reflect the views of Standard & Poor's, which operates separately from and independently of BusinessWeek Online. It is possible that BWOL may from time to time publish information that is not consistent with advice, analysis, or recommendations that are published by Standard & Poor's. Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek Online are each units of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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