The Globe and Mail attempts to identify North American listed stocks with strong cash flow and efficient operations in its Friday edition. The Globe's Peter Ashton writes in the Number Cruncher column that in the event of an interest-rate hike or other market disturbance, companies that generate strong cash flows should be safer investments than those with more tenuous operations. Mr. Ashton only looked at companies with a market cap greater than $5-billion. He searched for stocks with strong cash flow levels and efficient business operations. He screened for stocks with a price-to-cash-flow ratio of 14 or less. Mr. Ashton says companies with strong cash flows are more robust in the event of a market downturn. He says price to cash flow is often a more relevant metric than price to earnings because it is harder for a company to manipulate. He also screened for stocks with a debt-to-equity ratio of one or less. Finally, he screened for companies with operating margins of 10 per cent or more. Companies with strong cash flow are Voya Financial, Murphy Oil, Manulife Financial, General Dynamics, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Sun Life Financial, EI Dupont, Power Financial and Chesapeake Energy.