5 Safe Dividend Stocks For The Fiscal Cliff

Safety of equity investments becomes especially important during market downturns. Given the increased uncertainty in the markets, triggered by the reinstatement of higher capital gains taxes as of 2013 and the impending fiscal cliff that threatens to sink the economy into a recession, "safe" stocks are gaining in appeal. They are particularly popular because they have high long-term price stability and high financial strength, implying solid corporate balance sheets. These stocks generally fall less than the market as a whole when stock prices drop. Value Line, an independent investment research and analysis company, ranks stocks according to its proprietary Safety Ranking methodology, granting the highest status to those stocks that are least risky investments relative to Value Line's universe of some 1,700 stocks, which accounts for 90% of market capitalization of all U.S.-based stocks. For prudent investors, we have selected five stocks with Value Line's... Read more