Stocks continue setting new all-time highs, so it’s understandable if some investors are getting nervous about holding on to their gains. It doesn’t help that it’s almost October – a month that has hosted some of the worst market crashes in history. If it’s all too much for your nerves, there’s nothing wrong with adding some protection to your holdings.
And you can find that protection in an unlikely place: mid-cap stocks.
Typically, when investors consider “safe” stocks, they think about big, blue-chip companies in defensive sectors, such as AT&T (T). That’s fine, and AT&T’s dividend yield of 5% is indeed attractive. But AT&T is unlikely to wow you with price appreciation if the markets remain in bull mode. Conversely, stocks with small market capitalizations – share price times total shares outstanding – have a greater chance of putting up big gains, but they are riskier by their very nature.
That’s why you should consider looking in the comfortable middle ground. Mid-caps are firms with market capitalizations of about $2 billion to $10 billion. They tend to be more stable than small-cap stocks, but have better growth prospects than your average blue-chip large-cap.
We have searched the S&P MidCap 400 index – which includes companies between $1.6 billion and $6.8 billion in market cap – for mid-cap stocks to buy in good times and bad. We also looked for low beta scores; when a stock has a beta of less than 1, it tends to be less volatile and hold up better in a down market. Lastly, we also considered prices and analysts’ recommendations, among other criteria.
Here are five of the best mid-cap stocks to buy to survive a market crash.
SEE ALSO: The 30 Greatest Stocks of All Time
Data is as of Sept. 28, 2017. Companies are listed in order of market capitalization, starting with the highest. Analysts’ ratings provided by Zacks Investment Research. Click on symbol links in each slide for current share prices and more.
Source: Kiplinger
5 Mighty Mid-Cap Stocks That Will Survive a Market Crash
