Despite the stomach churning market volatility, there is one big positive in the indexes retesting the lows from last August and September. While the bearish symphony keeps bringing up the potential for recession, the fact of the matter is at this juncture it seems remote for this year. Growth may not be super-charged, but it should be enough to keep negative gross domestic product at a distance.

One sector that most Wall Street strategists are positive on is technology, and for the most part, fourth-quarter earnings were solid. In some cases like Alphabet and Facebook, the numbers were of the blowout variety.

We screened the Merrill Lynch research database for top tech stocks that are rated Buy at the firm that pay big dividends. We found four that all have a higher dividend yield than the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond.

Cisco

This top mega-cap technology stock pick on Wall Street is perhaps a surprising defensive pick for volatile markets like we have witnessed. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) posted disappointing earnings in November, and many on Wall Street lowered their price targets for the networking giant significantly. Yet, Cisco is also one of the 24/7 Wall St. top 10 stocks to own for the next decade.

Last year Cisco won an important contract for the Verizon build-out of the company’s next-generation 100G metro network. While Cisco’s optical business is small as a part of total revenue, this win is seen by Wall Street as a significant endorsement of the investments Cisco has made in its optics business.

Analysts across Wall Street point to an estimated double-digit bookings momentum for Cisco’s Meraki Cloud Services. Many think that Meraki likely will 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 also are adding to the total sales profile and product mix.

Cisco investors receive a 3.57% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price target for the stock is $30, and the Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $30.50. The shares closed most recently at $23.54.

Intel

This stock traded sideways all last year and actually closed down from where it started 2015, but with $21 billion of cash on the books the dividend looks very safe. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) designs, manufactures and sells integrated digital technology platforms worldwide that are used in various computing applications including notebooks, desktops, servers, tablets, smartphones, wireless and wired connectivity products, wearables, transportation systems and retail devices.

Intel purchased chip rival Altera last year for a massive $16.8 billion, and the deal closed on December 28. The addition helps Intel start to move away from the personal computer dependence and puts it into the traditional fabless market of programmable logic devices. By 2020, 50% of Altera’s product line could be manufactured at Intel facilities.

Intel’s NAND flash memory business has a strong focus on enterprise opportunities. Many on Wall Street who think that the company’s new chip, a collaboration with Micron Technology called the 3D XPoint, could be primarily In-Memory compute in servers and its launch should coincide with Intel’s Purley platform server launch in 2016.

Merrill Lynch cites data center growth; easier comparisons on PC sales, especially with renewed enterprise interest on Windows 10; and at current prices the stock is a very solid risk/reward addition to growth portfolios.

Investors receive a 3.5% dividend. Merrill Lynch recently raised its price target to $40. The consensus target is $36.54. Shares closed Thursday at $29.77.
Qualcomm

This stock that has totally underperformed this year but is a member of the Merrill Lynch US 1 list. Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) remains a Wall Street favorite, and many are sticking to their guns, basically saying that trading at current levels — 12.6 times estimated 2016 earnings — it may be a tremendous long-term value. Qualcomm is a quality tech company with recurring royalty revenue and a strong footprint, so patient investors may fare very well.

The growth of 3G mobile technologies in emerging markets, like China and India, has had a positive impact on Qualcomm. The company has been for years a market leader in the development of 3G CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technologies. It recently developed an LTE chipset that supports SCDMA (Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) technology. China’s mobile network runs on this, and it could provide the company with a huge leg up in years to come. The company has signed numerous big licensing deals in China that gave the stock a solid boost.

The recently announced joint venture with Japan’s TDK company will enable delivery of RFFE (radio frequency front-end) modules and radio frequency filters to fully integrate systems for mobile devices and other fast-growing business segments. According to Qualcomm, the RFFE space is projected to be an $18 billion market by 2020.

The company posted strong fourth-quarter results, but a licensing dispute with Japanese technology giant LG has surfaced, and the analysts feel the dispute could last through fiscal 2016. They do remain positive on the stock and reiterated the Buy rating.

Investors receive a 4.2% dividend. The $75 Merrill Lynch price target is well above the consensus estimate of $59.28. Shares closed Thursday at $45.66.

Western Digital

This long-time innovator in the storage industry is a leader in the total addressable hard disk drive (HDD) market. Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) storage solutions help to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. The company is responding to changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage products with effective technology deployment, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Its products are marketed under the HGST and WD brands to original equipment manufacturers, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers.

The most compelling news is that the company made a stunning $19 billion purchase of SanDisk last year that could be a strong addition to its current offerings. Western Digital could significantly benefit from SanDisk’s technology and portfolio leadership in the NAND flash semiconductor and enterprise flash systems market.

The drop off in the PC business helps to spur initiative in the company’s cloud business, and analysts estimate that the company’s gross profit contribution from Business Critical (cloud) drives will exceed that of PCs by the second half of next year. Of all the stocks beaten down due to the poor PC environment, Western Digital may have the most upside potential, especially when Wall Street analyst notes that in 2016 Enterprise HDDs will have an average three-year cost of $100 per year, versus $500 for NAND.

Investors receive a plump 4.07% dividend. Merrill Lynch has a whopping $76 price target, and the consensus figure is $73.75. Shares closed Thursday at $49.14.

While these may be more suited for aggressive growth accounts, they make good sense for total return investors. With good yields and solid upside potential, the prospects for overall gains are very good, as are the entry points.

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