[cnxvideo id=”625452″ placement=”ros”]Friday and Monday were pretty much a wake-up call for investors who dozed during the summer as the Volatility Index hovered at all-time lows. One thing is for sure: just when you think the water is calm, the floodgates can open and the volatility can skyrocket. With everything from analysts lowering estimates to the political cycle to a very hard to follow Federal Reserve, the ingredients are there for a witches brew of volatility.
In a new research piece, Deutsche Bank’s outstanding strategist David Bianco makes the case that it is dangerous to become too complacent on volatility, and he also recommends buying mega-cap and large cap stocks with low price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios.
We screened the “what to buy now” Buy-rated stock list at Deutsche Bank for stocks that fit into this category, and also looked for those with a solid dividend. We found four that look very good now.
Abbott Laboratories
Shares of this top pharmaceutical stock with very solid growth potential are down over 15% from highs hit last summer. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is a leading diversified global health care company that develops, manufactures and markets branded generics, medical devices, nutritional products and diagnostic solutions.
The company recently agreed to acquire the equity in Minnesota-based Tendyne Holdings that it does not already own for $250 million plus future payments tied to regulatory milestones. Wall Street likes the purchase and the way the company is putting its substantial balance sheet to work.
The company also offers a diversified large cap play as earnings are split between five well-positioned business segments: Nutritionals (31% of revenues), Vascular (13%), Generic Pharmaceuticals (20%) and Diagnostics (25.5%) and Diabetes (10.5%).
Back in July, CEO Miles White, who has been at the firm for over three decades, bought a stunning $45.5 million worth of company stock, which added to his already substantial holdings. The purchase made him one of the top 100 shareholders.
Abbott Labs investors receive a 2.55% dividend. The Deutsche Bank price target for the stock is $49, and the Wall Street consensus target is $48. The shares closed Monday at $41.42.
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CBS
This large cap broadcaster has bounced nicely off the lows and still could be an incredible value. CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) may be in the best position of all the broadcast networks with an outstanding prime time lineup, solid sports franchises like the NFL, March Madness College Basketball, The Masters and other top programming, the venerable network could once again be an outstanding stock for shareholders.
The company is leading in the spring ratings, and is poised to continue the network’s programming dominance in 2016. The broadcasting giant is now in the midst of a significant stock repurchase process, and many on Wall Street expect the company to shrink its share base by around 25% over the next two years.
Network advertising and strong content licensing revenue drove the upside in the third-quarter earnings, which beat consensus estimates despite a slight revenue miss. Similar to the broadcasting giant’s rivals, many analysts expect CBS to look to book content licensing more evenly over this year and into 2017.
CBS shareholders receive a 1.11% dividend. Deutsche Bank has a $68 price target. The consensus target is $63, and shares closed most recently at $52.76.
Cisco
This is one of the top mega-cap technology stock picks on Wall Street. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) designs, manufactures and sells Internet Protocol (IP) based networking products and services related to the communications and information technology industry worldwide. It provides switching products, including fixed-configuration and modular switches, and storage products that provide connectivity to end users, workstations, IP phones, wireless access points and servers, as well as next-generation network routing products that interconnect public and private wireline and mobile networks for mobile, data, voice and video applications.
Cisco offers service provider video infrastructure, including set-top boxes, cable/telecommunications access products, and cable modems, as well as video software and solutions. In addition, it provides collaboration products comprising unified communications products, conferencing products, telepresence systems and enterprise mobile messaging products; data center products, such as blade, rack and modular servers, fabric interconnects, software and server access virtualization solutions; security products, including network and data center security, advanced threat protection, web and email security, access and policy, unified threat management, and advisory, integration, and managed services; and other products, such as emerging technologies and other networking products.
Analysts across Wall Street point to an estimated double-digit bookings momentum for Cisco’s Meraki Cloud Services. Many think that Meraki is likely to be a $1 billion plus run-rate business this year, with an incredible 50% to 70% compounded annual growth rate. A jump from 40 GE to 100 GE data center switching and next generation security are also adding to the total sales profile and product mix.
Cisco investors receive a 3.33% dividend. The $35 Deutsche Bank price target compares with the consensus target of $32.85. The shares closed most recently at $31.44.
Wells Fargo
This large cap bank is a stock for investors to look at now for safety, dividends and solid upside potential. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.8 trillion in assets. The company provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer and commercial finance through 8,700 locations, 12,800 ATMs, the Internet and mobile banking. It also has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States.
Wells Fargo has slowly, but surely, become one of the biggest mortgage lending companies in the United States, in addition to its normal banking and brokerage businesses. A continued increase in commercial real estate lending could really boost the bank’s bottom line and overall revenue. The stock also remains a top Warren Buffett holding, and he raised his holdings in the bank to 10% on the stock’s weakness earlier this year.
The company reported inline results and earnings revisions, which didn’t go over well after the other major banks posted big earnings. Wells Fargo also had a recent public relations headache as it was revealed that employees allegedly opened up client accounts that were not approved. The dip in the shares due to the bad publicity could be a solid purchase level for long-term investors.
Shareholders receive a 3.13% dividend. The Deutsche Bank price target of $59 is higher than the $53 consensus target. Shares closed Monday at $48.54.
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Staying with large cap, low P/E stocks makes good sense for now. With the potential for rising volatility, and a crazy election cycle, the bigger the better. They all pay solid dividends, and they should continue to increase them.
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