Though the markets have fought their way back to even after a horrible start to the year, one very interesting anomaly continues to show up. According to Merrill Lynch, for the eighth consecutive week, its clients sold U.S. stocks, the longest selling streak since 2010. In addition, institutional clients have been the biggest net sellers in recent weeks. Do they know something we don’t know? Or are they pressured by bad performance and need to reset portfolios?
One positive data point the analysts did share was that buybacks by the firm’s corporate clients are tracking a whopping 45% higher the year-ago levels. That in of itself may be helping to keep a bid under the markets. Given that overall Merrill Lynch remains bearish, we screened the firm’s universe of stocks for safe companies rated Buy. We found four that make good sense now.
Let's look closer those 4 safe dividend stocks: MO, KO, KR and LLYSource: 24/7 Wall St.