Most have fortresslike balance sheets, too, and are renowned for conservative management. MasterCard (MA), at No. 1 on our list this year, is sitting on $2.3 billion, or roughly $17 a share, in cash -- it has almost no debt -- and reported a 9% rise in first-quarter operating income. Not many companies, including most blue chips, can boast that.

National Oilwell's shares are trading around $35, down from a July 2008 high of $92.70. But they have nearly doubled since November. "The stock is, in our mind, pretty cheap," Miller says. Shareholders tend to obsess about the company's order backlog, which is a guide to future earnings. In the first quarter, National Oilwell's backlog fell to $9.6 billion, from $11.1 billion just three months earlier. The company received only $240 million of orders for new capital equipment in the latest period, down from $2.4 billion in 2008's third quarter. The stock could improve on the first indication that orders have hit bottom. That might not happen until early next year, but the wait could be worth it.

No. 4-ranked Fiserv processes checks, online transactions and electronic bill payments, much like the back office of a bank. Suffering guilt by association, its shares tanked last year, falling to $27.35, from a high of $58.88 in June 2007. Yet Fiserv has what many banks now lack -- profits. It earned 88 cents a share from operations in the latest quarter, beating Wall Street estimates, and its stock has climbed to $40. CEO Jeffrey Yabuki calls it "quite a good buy."

"Our civil business is through the roof," says CEO Ronald Tutor, who also served as chairman and CEO of Tutor-Saliba. Perini has had a role in many civic projects, including Boston's Big Dig, the Air Train from Manhattan to Kennedy Airport, and Jamaica Station in Queens. The civil-construction business kicked in 5% of revenue last year, and could contribute 25% by 2010. That's good news for the bottom line, as operating margins on publicly funded projects are roughly 16%, compared with margins of 4% to 5% in the private sector. Besides, "there is no private development of any substance in this marketplace," Tutor says.

Despite tough end-markets, Precision Castparts boost- ed operating margins by 1.4 percentage points in its latest fourth quarter. The savings effectively offset a 9% decline in revenue. The company also excels at generating free cash flow, which should hit $982 million in fiscal 2010, up from $644 million in fiscal '07, Jefferies analysts estimate. Its shares have rallied off their March low of $48, hitting a recent $80 although that is only halfway back to their 2007 high of $153. CEO Mark Donegan said on a conference call that he sees a "challenging" first half to this fiscal year, although the backdrop could improve in the third and fourth quarters. Precision will benefit as Boeing (BA) begins to produce its 787 Dreamliner; the aircraft maker has 861 orders for the plane. Precision Castparts supplies four to five times more parts for the Dreamliner than for narrow-body planes. Sounds like a dream for the company and its shareholders.

Typically, we profile only the top five companies in our annual survey. But Research In Motion, at No. 6, merits a closer look. It landed near the top of the list for the second year running, but this time, its shares are trading around $74, and are much more reasonable than last year's $133. RIM trades for 19 times the $3.91 a share it is expected to earn in the fiscal year ending February 2010. It sports a 16 multiple on fiscal 2011 estimates. Both exceed the market's multiple of 15 times future earnings, but deservedly so, given the company's projected earnings growth of 19%.

Given the market's rout, many stocks look reasonably priced. Transocean, the deep-sea-rig contractor, sports the lowest absolute price/earnings ratio of the top 30 -- 5.4 -- and a relative P/E of 0.4. If oil prices rise, chances are its shares will, too.

Other stocks with notably low relative multiples are Perini and Harris , a communications-technology concern.