BBW* (not Big Beautiful Women...)

And it is not Build-a-Bear Workshop, but it is a term that describes Bloomberg Business Week's ranking of Standard & Poor's 500-stock on 4 factors:

1. one-year and five-year risk-adjusted returns (2 factors)
2. consensus analyst recommendations
3. projected earnings growth

Exceptions:  those companies covered by fewer than 5 analysts, those traded publicly for less than five years, those in pending acquisitions

The data is good as of February 8, 2013 for the most recent 12-month period.

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The following summary is based upon Bloomberg BusinessWeekly's hunches, my comments are there too.  If you are thinking about retirement, why not buy a little stock, based upon sound reasoning.  Start low and slow, then as you feel more confident, increase your participation. Honestly, it's not rocket science and I thank God I have done this as it is a comfort to me.

Go for it!

#1 Actavis 

Actavis is now the fourth-biggest generic drugmaker in the world. Generic drug sales are slated to grow by 65% from 2011 to 2016, compared with 3% to 8% for the branded drug versions.
This is a preferred pick.
Traded as (ACT)
Market cap — $11 billion
Revenue —$5.7 billion
EPS* $1.29
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $85.98

#2 Salesforce

iCloud pre-configured services is what Salesforce provides to its clients, starting with sales-force automation then customer service and support, now marketing.
Traded as (CRM)
Market cap — $24 billion
Revenue —$2.8 billion
EPS* -$1.79
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $168.32 

 #3 DaVita HealthCare Partners

Traded as (DVA)
Market cap — $12 billion
Revenue —$7.6 billion
EPS* $5.51
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $119.25 

#4 Amazon

You know the story, watch this stock to split and then buy.
Traded as (AMZN)
Market cap — $118 billion (I've contributed to half of that!)
Revenue —$61.1 billion
EPS* -$0.09
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $264.20 

#5 Alexion Pharmaceuticals

Soliris, a drug that works on deadly blood disorders that effect fewer than 20,000 patients with a net gain of $1 billion in 2012.
Traded as (ALXN)
Market cap — $18 billion
Revenue —$1 billion
EPS* $1.12
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $87.50 

#6 American Tower

Traded as (AMT)
Market cap — $30 billion
Revenue —$2.8 billion
EPS* $1.78
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $77.76 

#7 Eastman Chemical

EC's chemicals are in everything from high rise windows to car tires. Lower natural gas prices has lowered costs.
This is a preferred pick.
Traded as (EMN)
Market cap — $11 billion
Revenue —$8.1 billion
EPS* $2.93
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $70.62 

 #8 Flowserve

Traded as (FLS)
Market cap — $8 billion
Revenue —$4.7 billion
EPS* $7.99
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $160.00 

 #9 Apple

You know the story, watch this stock to split and then buy. 
Traded as (AAPL)
Market cap — $440 billion
Revenue —$164.7 billion

EPS* $44.10
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $445.82

 #10 MasterCard

You know the story, watch this stock to split and then buy. 
Traded as (MA) 
Market cap — $65 billion
Revenue —$7.4 billion
EPS* $21.94
Stock Price (at this writing 2/28/13) - $518.73 

Honorary Mentions

#11 Time Warner Cable - There's a rub!
#12 Wyndham Worldwide — Has signed a deal with Jimmy Buffet to create a 34-acre theme park "Margaritaville Resort" on St. Thomas.
#14 Priceline
#15 Comcast - How? I do not know!
#17 Ebay — Holiday sales this year (at their highest) pushed
#18 Mattel - Yah! Barbie! Followed by No. 2 Doll Franchise "Monster High."
#20 Expedia
#21 TJX
#23 Home Depot
#25 Starbucks — Watch this one!  They are opening hundreds of coffee shops in coffee-loving Vietnam this year.
#27 Time Warner
#30 Walt Disney — Bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion and is planning a new Star Wars film for 2015.
#33 CVS
#34 CBS
#37 Whirpool - buying an appliance?
#38 Whole Foods — Planning on going up to 1,000 stores through acquisitions (6 Johnnie's Foodmaster locations in Boston) and new stores. (This is one to watch!)
#39 Lowe's - Creeping up on #23 and benefiting from the burgeoning new home market and hurrincane's Sandy and Irene.
(This is one to watch!)
#44 Direct TV — This is one cable company that seems to get customer service and pricing right; they are using their cash to buy back stock to boost its shares, which trade at a discount. (Currently trading at $48.52 — preferred pick)
#49 PetSmart — With improving economy this stock will go up when middle class feel they can have the extravagance of a dog or cat.

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* EPS —The portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. Earnings per share serves as an indicator of a company's profitability.

See Bloomberg Businessweek, February 18-24, 2013, page 37, for a full description of the above.