For investors who want to find safe plays amid a volatile market, there's a whole set of large-cap names — particularly in health care — that could make for attractive investments. Stocks had a wild few trading sessions after Monday's steep global sell-off, and closed the week up at levels that almost reversed its weekly losses. The three major U.
S. indexes initially tumbled on weaker-than-expected U.S.
payrolls data, concerns about the Federal Reserve's rate-cutting pace and an unwinding of the yen "carry trade." CNBC Pro screened FactSet to find companies in the S & P 500 that could be reliable plays amid this stormy market. These stocks have low share price volatility over the past five years, and their total return — including share price gains and dividends — are greater than the S & P 500's over the past five years.
They're also holding up well in the near term and are attractively valued, as each stock has gained 5% or more in the past three months and has a forward price-to-earnings ratio less than the broad-market index's, meaning 21 or less. Take a look at the names below: Health-care companies Amgen , UnitedHealth Group and AbbVie are among the names with low volatility and strong returns in recent years. Pharmaceutical company AbbVie's roughly 262% gain over the past five years is the highest of the stocks in the group.
Shares are up 22.6% this year, and have seen a three-month change of 18.7%.
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management recently added AbbVie to its .