How can you find defensive stocks suited to this environment?
10 stocks are combining several key qualities to weather crises.
Investor sentiment on Wall Street has deteriorated this week as tensions between the United States and Iran escalated once again. After declaring the ceasefire effectively over following the NATO summit in Turkey, President Donald Trump announced new military strikes. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard responded by targeting US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, sending up nearly 5%.
Periods like these typically drive investors toward defensive stocks. The challenge, however, lies in identifying the companies best positioned to weather heightened uncertainty rather than simply buying traditional defensive sectors indiscriminately.
4 Criteria for Identifying True Safe-Haven Stocks
Not all defensive stocks offer the same level of protection. In a market shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, higher bond yields, and pressure on growth stocks, a handful of key indicators can help separate genuinely resilient companies from those that only appear defensive.
The InvestingPro Health Score is a useful starting point. Rated on a scale of 1 to 4, it combines measures of liquidity, profitability, solvency, and growth to identify companies with strong financial foundations. Businesses with higher scores are generally better equipped to navigate economic uncertainty.
The InvestingPro Fair Value, which combines several widely used valuation models, highlights stocks trading below their estimated intrinsic value. Buying quality companies at a discount provides a greater margin of safety if market volatility persists.
The Piotroski Score, which ranges from 0 to 9, evaluates a company’s financial strength using nine criteria covering profitability, leverage, liquidity, and operating efficiency. A score above 6 is typically viewed as a sign of solid underlying fundamentals.
Finally, dividends remain an important consideration during volatile markets. Companies with reliable dividend payments provide a recurring source of income and have historically offered greater resilience during market downturns.
The combination of these four criteria—operational strength, undervaluation, accounting robustness, and yield—is precisely what enables the construction of a coherent defensive portfolio suited to the current environment.
These US stocks tick all the defensive boxes
We therefore turned to the Investing.com screener to identify U.S. stocks that meet the following criteria:
Market capitalization greater than $1 billion
InvestingPro Health Score greater than 2.5
Piotroski score of at least 6
Upside potential of more than 20% according to InvestingPro Fair Value
Dividend yield greater than 5%
Has paid dividends for more than 10 years
This research has allowed us to identify 10 opportunities:
Specifically, these U.S. defensive stocks offer dividend yields ranging from 4.2% to 10.3%, while being undervalued by 21.4% to 59.1% based on Fair Value.
Among these stocks are:
: Del Monte Corporation, formerly Fresh Del Monte Produce, is a global producer of fresh produce and packaged food, making it a naturally defensive business during periods of geopolitical uncertainty. The company currently offers a dividend yield of about 4.2%, supported by a decade of consistent dividend growth. In Q1 2026, revenue slightly exceeded expectations, while management maintained a positive outlook for the year following the integration of the Del Monte Foods brand. The main risk remains higher transportation, fuel, and packaging costs linked to tensions in the Middle East.
: H&R Block operates one of the largest tax preparation businesses in the United States, giving it a stable and largely non-cyclical revenue base. The company delivered solid fiscal Q3 results, beating earnings expectations and raising full-year guidance. It also offers a dividend yield of roughly 4.2%, backed by 11 consecutive years of dividend increases and a conservative payout ratio of about 28%, providing investors with a combination of income and financial resilience.
However, many other stocks on this list have more attractive profiles, whether in terms of yield, valuation, or both.
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Disclaimer: This article is written for informational purposes only. It is not intended to encourage the purchase of any assets and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or advice to invest. I would like to remind you that all assets are evaluated from multiple perspectives and are highly risky; therefore, any investment decision and the associated risk are the sole responsibility of the investor. Additionally, we do not provide any investment advisory services.
