I don’t need to remind you that the market has been volatile of late. (Thanks Captain Obvious). But it may be helpful to know that the bull market is still in place and stocks are likely to make new highs before the year is out.

That last part may not be so obvious with all the headlines about inverted yield curves and the US-China trade dispute. So here is a link to the recent article I wrote spelling out why the long term bull is still in charge: Does 1 Equation Hold the Key for Stocks Prices?

The article also pointed out that investors have a low appetite for risk. That means the stocks that will lead the way for now are large cap, income stocks in conservative industries…or at least not aggressive industries. And yes, the less exposure to China trade the better.

So this morning I set out to find exactly the kind of stocks that were perfectly suited for this investment environment. In all I uncovered 16 stocks that had the right ingredients to outperform.

You will not be shocked to find a $200 billion market cap drug company like Novartis (NVS) on the list. Nor industry peer Glaxosmithkline (GSK). Nor food and tobacco giant Philip Morris (PM).

Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) is also on this list. Interestingly EPD also came up on an earlier screening project of mine which led to it being added to the Reitmeister Total Return portfolio.

What I found most interesting was the number of financial giants on the list. They say that low rates is not the best environment for financials…but they sure seemed to do quite well back a few years ago when the 10 year rate got below 1.4%. So this may be a good opportunity for bottom fishing on those quality names.

Let me share with you the criteria I used for today’s stock search to help spell out how they have the right qualities for this volatile investing landscape.

• POWR Rating of A or B = proof of a stocks momentum
• $10 billion+ market cap: This means large caps only given the Flight to Safety trade that is going on there is just too much risk in smaller stocks.
• 2%+ dividend yield. I wanted it above the S&P 500 average of 1.8%. However, I didn’t want crazy high dividends (like over 8%) which are often a sign of stocks with no growth potential. Meaning I didn’t want income to be the only draw to the stock.
• Earnings estimates on the rise for this year and next. Meaning that the growth outlook is healthy after their most recent earnings announcement. Remember that this earnings season was one of the weaker growth periods for Corporate America. So I wanted to make sure we were in the stocks with healthy and improving growth outlooks.
• Minimum 10% upside from current price to average target price set by Wall Street analysts. This was important because many growth and income stocks have been bid up to extreme levels. So I wanted to find those that still have attractive capital appreciation potential to go with their outsized dividends.

Each of these criteria alone would help pick better stocks in this environment. When you combine them together you really stack the odds in your favor.

See all 16 stocks below. Remember that when you see a stock you like then click on the ticker to research further. That’s because the POWR Ratings system has 4 component elements that help you explore the full attractiveness of the stock.

To see the full list of top rated high yield stocks, regardless of POWR Rating, then click here.

Also here are links to 3 other popular destinations to make the best use of the POWR Ratings:

Full List of “A ”Rated Strong Buy Stocks–  See all the top rated stocks.

About the POWR Ratings– Learn what’s build inside the POWR Ratings that helps find stocks ready to outperform.

Reitmeister Total Return portfolio. This is where Steve Reitmeister employs his 40 years of investment experience to hand select the best POWR Ratings stocks.

NVS shares closed at $89.47 on Friday, up $0.89 (+1.00%). Year-to-date, NVS has gained 20.97%, versus a 16.65% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

About the Author: Steve Reitmeister

Steve is better known to the StockNews audience as “Reity”. Not only is he the CEO of the firm, but he also shares his 40 years of investment experience in the Reitmeister Total Return portfolio. Learn more about Reity’s background, along with links to his most recent articles and stock picks. More...

More Resources for the Stocks in this Article