10 Good, Cheap Stocks to Buy Now: Morningstar

Morningstar compiles its annual list of best companies to own in order to provide investors with a sense of certainty about stocks they may want to buy. The list comprises companies with significant competitive advantages, as indicated by their moat ratings, and ones that have predictable cash flows and are run by management teams with a history of making smart capital-allocation decisions. But as Margaret Giles, a content development editor at Morningstar, noted in a recent blog post, investors need to be aware that the best companies are not always the best stocks to buy. How much they pay to own a company, however good it is, is also important. Giles sorted through the best companies list, and came up with a handful of high-quality names that are attractive investments today. See the gallery for her list of the 10 most undervalued stocks as of May 29. Year-to-date performance is as of June 3.