Top 20 Coronavirus-Proof Stocks to Own Today

I’ve been getting a lot of questions on what the best stocks are to buy or to hold during this coronavirus epidemic.

The stocks that will be listed are companies whose businesses that were not affected by this epidemic at all. It is not affected by people staying at home and not going out.

In fact, the best stocks to own are those whose businesses will get a boost from people staying at home.

Besides the obvious risk that coronavirus has to our health and well-being, this is dealing a severe blow to the economy and if this virus continues for too long, it could take the entire global economy into a major recession.

INDUSTRIES THAT HAVE BEEN HIT THE HARDEST

The industries that depend on people going out and coming together to spend money has been hit the hardest by this epidemic.

Some of these includes:

Transportation, Outdoor Entertainment, Retail (Brick & Mortar), Oil & Gas, Tourism, F&B Restaurants, Clubs, Pubs

Let’s look at some charts:

Delta Airlines

Royal Caribbean

Exxon Mobil

Cedar Fair

It is terrifying if you’re an investor in any of these stocks. There was no way you could have seen this coming. This was a black swan.

Now the great news is that this epidemic (like past crisis – financial crisis, H1N1, Mad Cow Disease) will not last forever. It will end, and when it ends, the global economy will recover.

So, should you be buying or holding these stocks whose sales and profits are temporarily hit by this epidemic? Well, you could, and they will recover eventually.

But personally, I prefer to buy stocks whose businesses are not affected at all by the virus.

Their sales and profit have not been affected by people staying at home but share prices have dropped purely for irrational and emotional reasons.

Why?

Because when everyone’s confidence comes back, these companies whose sales and profits are intact will increase a lot faster than these companies whose profits have been impacted.

At the same time, I would like my portfolio to have stocks that are resilient in the worst-case scenario.

Here’s the thing, I’m an optimist and I honestly believe that this crisis will resolve within 5-6 months and this is because the cases in China are falling with less and less people getting sick.

Factories in China are also beginning to reopen again. Starbucks that closed 80% of their outlets in China have begun to reopen them.

But the question is, what if I am wrong? What if it does not resolve? What if in 2-3 years time, we cannot leave our houses and it becomes a norm for everyone to work from home?

This is why I want to have a portfolio of stocks where businesses will continue to thrive and increase their sales and profits if people have to stay at home for a long period of time.

So here’s my top 20 list of what I call the ‘Stay At Home Stocks’ – stocks whose sales will not be impacted by people staying at home and not going out for a very long time.

Having these stocks in the portfolio will truly virus-proof and recession-proof your portfolio in the months or years to come.

Think about it, if you cannot go out much and you got to stay at home, what are the products and services that you still have to use?

COMMUNICATION

We are going to use a lot more of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp – and these products are owned by Facebook.

In China, where Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp is banned, they use another platform – Wechat. Wechat is owned by Tencent – a large mega tech company in China.

We also use Google to get information on what is happening in the world and YouTube to watch videos – both owned by Alphabet.

COMPUTER GAMING

Being holed up in your home (especially if you are a male) can make many turn to online gaming!

The biggest online gaming company in the world is Tencent. Tencent owns most of the popular games in the world.

In second place, there’s Activision Blizzard which owns Call of Duty.

There’s also Electronic Arts, well-known for their EA sports games.

Computer gaming will really thrive the more people have to stay at home!

TECH-SOFTWARE

Companies are implementing work from home and with this, we will start using more tech-software.

Most of us use Microsoft Office and a lot of enterprises out there are using Microsoft Cloud. They even pay an annual subscription to Microsoft. This is why it’s also a core stock in my portfolio as well.

If you’re into designing or have to create a lot of documents, you’ll also be needing Adobe (Photoshop, Acrobat, Pagemaker). Adobe is also a subscription-based software.

As more and more people work from remote locations from home, companies are holding a lot of online meetings and video conferencing. In the past, people used to use Skype but the #1 software now is Zoom Communications.

However, I am not owning Zoom Communications yet as I think it is a little expensive and I am hoping that I will come down a little bit more before I start buying the stock but it’s something to place on the watchlist.

E-COMMERCE

You would want to own businesses that are in the e-Commerce industry because people will definitely still buy certain products through online services.

The #1 e-Commerce business in the world is AMAZON!

Amazon is also a core stock in my portfolio and it’s still pretty cheap right now.

Most of the world uses Amazon right now except China. China uses AliBaba. AliBaba owns AliExpress and AliPay.

If you want to conquer the world, you must own businesses that dominate both China and outside of China.

You also have Shopify, an e-Commerce platform.

However, I don’t own Shopify yet because I think it’s still a little bit too expensive and I’m waiting for it to come down a little bit more.

HEALTHCARE

The healthcare industry is certain to grow with the growing demands of it around the world.

The biggest healthcare stock in the world is Johnson & Johnson. They make medical devices, drugs as well as toiletries.

Another company is Kimberly-Clark. Kimberly-Clark manufactures toilet rolls, diapers and paper products that we need.

Thirdly, we have Abbott Laboratories, another major healthcare stock. They too make medical devices, drugs and are well-known for health formulas.

CONSUMER STAPLES

Consumer staples belong to a group of essential items that we must use no matter what happens.

Here we have Clorox –a company that produces cleaning products. People are going to start taking care of their hygiene more during this pandemic, hence this being in the consumer staple group.

I feel that it is still a little bit expensive now, so I am going to wait for a lower price to start accumulating some.

Other than cleaning, when you’re at home watching TV and you get bored, what do you do? I definitely will find some snacks to munch on.

That is why the next company we have here is Pepsico. Weird enough but Pepsi is not the main product for Pepsico because, in the soft drink market, we all know Coke is the market leader. Pepsico’s main source of revenue is from their potato chips – Lays!

Now, men may not think this is a necessity, but women will think differently.

This company is Estee Lauder – a market leader in the beauty industry.

You must be thinking “huh, but you’re staying at home, why do you need makeup for?”

But some women may still want to look good when they go online for their e-meetings!

Now, on to more consumer staples.

When you are lazy and want to order food in, what’s one of the first foods that pops into your mind?

Pizza? Yes! And one of the biggest players is Domino’s Pizza.

Of course, other than pizza, there is also McDonald’s in the fast-food industry!

To end the list, we have P&G. A company that owns many household products and necessities that we have to use every single day – Shaver, Shampoo, Deodorant, Detergent.

So this is my top 20 list of stocks to own in a recession-proof, coronavirus proof portfolio.

Disclaimer:

These are business which I believe in their sales and profits that are not going to be affected very much by people staying at home. It doesn’t mean their stock prices won’t go down. The stock prices will still go down because of wide-spread panic selling by some retail investors. But I can tell you that they will probably go down less and you may even see the share price going up because they are very defensive stocks.

Now what I’m saying is this, when this market crash is over, when the market recovers, these are the stocks that are going to fly up faster than other companies whose profits have plummeted by the virus (eg airlines, cruises)

THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION FOR YOU TO BUY ANY OF THESE COMPANIES. These are companies which I think are fantastic and I own many of them but you’ve got to do your own research to know when’s the best time to get in.

You want to buy them only when they are fundamentally undervalued and when they show good candle patterns on the charts.

So take care and may the markets be with you.

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