- Phil Davidson likes to choose solid but "boring" stocks with healthy balance sheets and strong market positions in stable industries for his American Century Equity Income Fund, which is mostly focused on wealth preservation; when volatility spiked earlier in October, his portfolio fell 2.7% vs. the market’s 4.3% decline.
- His five favorite stocks he sees as pleasantly boring in a volatile market include Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) for its global dominance across all three of its businesses - pharmaceutical, consumer and medical devices.
- PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) is under activist pressure to split its beverage and snack units, an added bonus to a stock that's worth owning either way; Davidson thinks fears over the decline in the U.S. carbonated soft drink market are overblown.
- At Air Products (NYSE:APD), new CEO Seifi Ghasemi is a perfect fit to squeeze more out of a company that already has good assets in a stable industry, Davidson says.
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UPS has been under pressure to keep up with growing business to consumer shipments, and has spent money to increase capacity; the spending has weighed on earnings this year, but Davidson thinks it's bound to pay off.
- Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) has been a victim of the low interest rate environment, but Davidson likes its conservative business model.