In This Tough Market, Here Are Four Elite Stocks To Consider

Four names stand out as ways to play defense in a volatile market.

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Stocks rose in late morning trading on Friday, erasing earlier losses as the market continued to exhibit volatility. In spite of that, the major averages remained on track to post weekly losses for the week. Silicon Valley Bank's woes caused the shares of the bank to fall in the wake of the news.

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There was, however, a rise in nonfarm payrolls that was greater than expected. Nevertheless, average hourly earnings rose less than expected, which may influence the Federal Reserve's decision on how aggressive it will be in raising interest rates in the future.

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To that end, Trade Algo looked for names that could not only offer shelter from the storm but also grow earnings and be loved by analysts.

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With a debt-to-equity ratio under 150%, the companies have low debt, as well as a beta of under 1 over the last three years - which means that they are less volatile than the broader market on a three-year basis. In addition, they are expected to grow their earnings-per-share for 2023 by more than 1%, and their share price is expected to rise in 2023 as well. Furthermore, most of the analysts who cover the stocks have rated them as buys by the majority of them.

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With a market cap of more than $1.8 trillion, Microsoft is by far the largest company on this list. The tech giant has a beta of 0.9 over the last three years and a debt-to-equity ratio of 42.6%. There is also a dividend yield of 1.1% and the company expects a 1% increase in earnings per share in 2023 as a result of its dividend growth.

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It is estimated that 69% of analysts covering the stock have rated the stock as a buy. Credit Suisse's Andrew St. Pierre was one of those analysts who added Microsoft to his top picks for March on the basis of its big bet on artificial intelligence with ChatGPT, which makes it one of his top picks for March.

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“Through integrating ChatGPT-like capabilities into its suite of applications, Microsoft has potential revenue of $40 billion ($33.6 billion from Office adoption) and EPS of over $2 billion ($1.82 billion from Office adoption). The monetization of OpenAI's technology in MSFT's productivity suites and premium GPT-integrated offerings will likely lead to a 3 to 5-year growth in revenue and EPS,” he wrote to clients.

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The share price of Microsoft has increased by about 5% this year compared to last year.

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Equinix is one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the world, with a beta of 0.6, which is the lowest out of the group. Even so, it has the highest debt-to-equity ratio among all the digital infrastructure companies, at 143.1%. There is also a 2% dividend yield on the digital infrastructure company's stock, and its earnings growth for 2023 is expected to reach 8.5%.

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Equinix reported adjusted EBITDA for February of $838.7 million, which was higher than StreetAccount's estimate of $833.20 million.

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Seventy-three percent of analysts rate the stock as a buy. The stock has increased about 4% so far this year.

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The share price of Corteva has risen by 1.3% this year and 61.5% of the analysts covering the stock are rating the stock as a buy. The beta of the company over the next three years is 0.8, and it is projected to grow earnings per share by 8% in 2023. With a current dividend yield of 1%, the agriculture chemical company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.9% and a dividend yield of 1%.

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Last but not least, Linde has a debt-to-equity ratio of nearly 47% and a beta of just over 1 for the past three years. During the fourth quarter of the year, the industrial gas giant posted adjusted earnings of $3.16 per share, exceeding StreetAccount's forecast for $2.90 per share.

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According to Trade Algo, after the earnings report, CEO Sanjiv Lamb said, "We are hugely resistant." He continued, "Our presence is ubiquitous. We play a small part in every industrial activity."

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Linde shares are up more than 8% this year.

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