5 Ex-Dividend Stocks With Buy Ratings

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The following stocks go ex-dividend Thursday, meaning an investor must purchase the shares Wednesday to qualify for the next dividend payment: Verizon(VZ) , General Mills(GIS) , Darden(DRI) , Intuit(INTU) and OGE Energy(OGE) .

Each of the stocks received a buy rating from TheStreet Ratings.

Verizon

The telecommunications company is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on April 18. Analysts, on average, anticipate earnings of 58 cents a share on revenue of $28.21 billion.

"While VZ trades at 15.5x 2012 CS EPS, a premium to T at 13x, the premium may be warranted given VZ's better growth prospects," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a report Monday.

Forward Annual Dividend Yield: 5.2%

Rated "B- (Buy)" by TheStreet Ratings: The company's fourth-quarter gross profit margin decreased from the previous year.

Verizon has weak liquidity. Its Quick Ratio is 0.84, which demonstrates a lack of ability to meet its short-term cash needs.

In the fourth quarter, stockholders' net worth decreased 6.73% from the prior year.