Dividend Stocks to Withstand a Market Downturn

The uptrend in the S&P 500 has stalled out in recent weeks, and the widely watched index is down a little more than 2% over the last month. The pullback in the market coincides with increasing concerns over a slowdown in global economic growth, a re-flaring of the European sovereign debt crisis, and jitters about another summer sell-off. Make no mistake, many traders and investors may be eying the exits, as the old adage "sell in May, and go away" has proven prescient in recent years.

In order to pinpoint some of the most promising places to hide out if volatility reappears with a vengeance, I ran a stock screen looking for consumer staples names with market caps above $10 billion, forward P/E ratios below 15, dividends above 3% and betas (a measure of risk) below 0.5. Below, I highlight the 7 names that met this criteria: 1. Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), 2. General Mills (NYSE: GIS), 3. Kellogg Company (NYSE: K), 4. Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB), 5. Lorillard (NYSE: LO), 6. Altria Group (NYSE: MO) and 7. Pepsico (NYSE: PEP).

Source: Benzinga

Related Articles:
- 4 of my 5 Largest Dividend Stock Positions Have Double-Digit Lifetime Returns
- The Best Dividend Stocks In The World Are Found Here
- A Roadmap To Build Wealth With Dividend Stocks
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Dividend Stocks
- 12 Blue Chip Dividend Stocks For When the Chips Are Down