This story was originally published here.
Investor Insights:
- Three sectors will be in demand no matter what happens with the pandemic.
- I searched these sectors and found four names you absolutely need to own.
- Buying these solid dividend-paying stocks will make you money in a rocky market.
This market is uncertain. More than it has ever been.
We don’t even know when we can go back to work … much less go out to eat.
That favors companies with less uncertainty.
So, I want to take you through an exercise that both makes sense … and makes you money.
My goal was to choose sectors that we will continue to rely upon regardless of our current pandemic.
I focused on three essential sectors:
- Consumer staples.
- Health care.
- Utilities.
They should remain in demand. That’s why the best names in these sectors are beating the market right now.
And I’ve figured out a way to improve on these already market-beating returns.
Cash Is King
Once I narrowed my search to three sectors — consumer staples, health care and utilities — I focused on companies that consistently grow their dividends.
It makes sense to take advantage of the market’s weakness by picking up some solid dividend-paying stocks. You may never want to sell them.
Per Dividend.com, 33 companies from these three sectors have increased their dividends for at least 27 years in a row. The bulk of these companies are in the S&P 500 Index or the Russell 2000 Index.
From the market top on February 19 to the March 23 bottom, the S&P 500 fell 34%. The Russell 2000 fell 41%. But our list of 33 stocks only fell 25%.
And this isn’t the first time they’ve outperformed.
From its September 2000 peak to October 2002, the S&P 500 fell nearly 60%. This group of stocks rose 14%.
That came after the information technology sector had handily outpaced the broader market over the prior decade. And we just saw that again.
The information technology sector’s gains doubled the S&P 500’s performance since the March 2009 bottom.
How to Cull the List
In my example above, I said the dividend-raising stocks fell 25% from February to March.
But if we just owned the companies with small amounts of debt, our loss decreased to 13%.
This has continued. Between February 19 and April 7, these companies are nearly break-even, down just 1.6%.
This should make sense to you.
If you have less debt, you can sleep better at night. Companies are the same way…
To keep reading, click here.
Editor's Note: Keep reading for an important message…
The No. 1 Tech Stock of 2020 Just Tripped a Rare “BUY” Signal
One company is about to blow nearly every other tech firm out of the water.
As one investment analyst commented: “Its numbers are truly mind-blowing.”
Thirty-one analysts recently gave this stock a massive buy/outperform rating…
And it just triggered a fresh signal that indicates it could be about to explode in price.
You see, this company holds more than 200 patents, and 500 more are pending in a technology that experts are calling “the new oil.”
That makes this company absolutely dominant in a tech revolution that is expected to explode 18,767%.
You won’t want to miss this.
Click here now to see exactly why Ian King recommends this amazing company.
