"Benjamin Graham has been recognized for decades as the father of value investing; Warren Buffett was a student of Ben Graham at Columbia University and later worked for Mr. Graham for several years," notes J. Royden Ward.

The editor of the Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter explains, "We've combined Warren Buffett's and Ben Graham's investing criteria for choosing stocks and and found six high-quality companies.

"We believe that the six stocks that passed our screen each sell at sensible prices, offer reasonable appreciation potential, and provide solid dividends.

Founded in 1950, New York based American Express (AXP) is a leading global financial services company offering card payment products and travel-related services to consumers and businesses across the globe. It is now the third largest player in the U.S. in terms of card transaction volumes after Visa (V) and MasterCard (MC). It also competes with other financial institutions that have credit card services like Discover Financial (DFS) and Capital One (COH).

Coach (COH) is a leading American marketer of luxury lifestyle handbags and other fashion accessories for both men and women. It is one of the most well-known accessories brands in the U.S. and also maintains a presence in select international markets. Coach competes with other premium apparel and accessories players like Polo Ralph Lauren (RL), Liz Claiborne (LIZ), and AnnTaylor (ANN), as well as high-end brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci and Prada.

We have previously discussed the potential upside to Coach from expansion in China and the increasing popularity of its "affordable luxury" brand image. (see Could Coach Replicate its Japanese Market Success in China?) However, Coach's shares sold off post earnings even as Coach beat expectations, largely because gross margin remained flat and failed to meet expectations. It seems that the market is not ready to pay more for Coach right now.

Coca-Cola (KO) has more than $13 billion in cash.

The top five companies (according to market cap) are:

• Exxon Mobil (XOM): $398.3 billion
• Apple (AAPL): $309.0 billion
• Microsoft (MSFT): $237.5 billion
• General Electric (GE): $215.0 billion
• Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A): $202.5 billion

Analyst Upgrades

• Boeing (BA) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Alcoa (AA) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• BP (BP) to outperform from market perform at Raymond James.
• Office Depot (ODP) and Staples (SPLS) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• ON Semiconductor (ONNN) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Kennametal (KMT) and Polyone (POL) to buy from hold at KeyBanc.
• Airgas (ARG) to outperform from market perform at William Blair.
• EchoStar (SATS) to neutral from underperform at Macquarie.

If you managed to catch the second elevator up in August with Coach Inc. (COH), first discussed here on April 15, 2009, at a price of $18.22, now may be a good time to consider taking some profits off the table.

After a summer dip, Coach has rocketed higher, soaring from about $40 to more than $54, tossing aside key, psychological resistance at $50.

Those investors who can tolerate the risk can hold on to their full position and go for an even bigger gain with COH.

Our recommendations at The Buyback Letter currently focus on a collection of five stocks that we believe, as a group, will outperform the market this month. So far, we have done well. Our Buyback Premium Portfolio is beating the S&P 500 by more than 68% since its inception (August 2, 2000). The portfolio is up 47.53% since inception versus a decline of 20.64% in the S&P 500 over the same time frame. For the month of September 2010, The Buyback Premium Portfolio gained 12.38% vs. a gain of 8.76% in the S&P 500.

So what's our New Premium Portfolio Recommendation? On October 1, we issued a sell recommendation on two stocks Coach (COH) and Health Net (HNT) at market. Now, we recommended using the proceeds and available cash to buy equal dollar amounts of the following two stocks at market:Family Dollar (FDO) and American Financial Group (AFG).

Analyst Upgrades

• BB&T (BBT) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Janney Montgomery.
• Amylin (AMLN) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Morton's Restaurant (MRT) to outperform from market perform.
• Check Point (CHKP) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at HSBC.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Excel Maritime (EXM) to buy from hold.
• JinkoSolar (JKS) was upgraded to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Compellent (CML) to overweight from neutral.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded Crane (CR) to buy from neutral.
• Goldman upgraded Wisconsin Energy (WEC) to conviction buy from buy and American Electric (AEP) to buy from neutral.
• Motorola (MOT) was upgraded due to increasing carrier support by MKM Partners.
• Under Armour (UA) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Sterne Agee.

"Our recommendations center on a collection of five stocks that we believe, as a group, will outperform the market this month; our portfolio is beating the S&P 500 by more than 58% since its inception in 2000," notes David Fried.

The editor of The Buyback Letter explains, "High-end accessories retailer, Coach (COH), is a new addition to this portfolio.

"The company is a leading American marketer of fine accessories and gifts for women and men. Even in a struggling economy, apparently luxury sells, as long as you're stocking the right premium products.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• American Express Co. (AXP) doubled its bottom line in Q4 while its provisions for losses fell.
• Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) warned of weakness in Q4 and lowered its guidance, sending shares lower.
• Coach Inc. (COH) better-than-expected Q2 earnings were accompanied by sales growth, but shares fell.
• Comerica Inc. (CMA) posted a smaller-than-expected Q4 loss, sending shares to a 52-week high.
• CSX Corp. (CSX) posted Q4 earnings that topped estimates but its revenue fell short of expectations.

Coach Inc. (COH) is one of those plays that makes you smile, due to its sweet-spot market position, and it goes without saying that I'm reiterating my buy rating for the company's shares, first recommended on April 13, 2009, at a price of $18.22.

If you bought COH in April 2009, you're up an impressive 90%. If you didn't, don't fret: there's more upside ahead with Coach.

Anyway, Coach said total sales increased 11% in the second quarter. North American same-store sales advanced over 3%. Earnings came in at 75 cents per share, 8 cents better than last year's income stat. Earnings.com says Wall Street was looking for 72 cents per share.