The following is an excerpt from 7 Top Stocks That Would Survive an Apocalypse:
My new Samsung Galaxy smartphone is waterproof … or at least the box says it is. I’m not so sure, myself. While I’m sure a little splash of water won’t hurt the phone, I’m not planning on taking it on any deep-sea adventures any time soon. We’ll call it “water resistant” rather than fully “waterproof.”
Along the same lines, there is no such thing as a truly apocalypse-proof stock.
But the very top stocks come close.
They have durable competitive “moats,” bulletproof balance sheets and business models that are future-proof (or at least as future-proof as you can ever reasonably hope to be). Nothing short of nuclear war or the plot line from the Terminator coming true could reasonably be expected to put these companies at risk.
Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen might prove to be correct when she says that we won’t see another major financial crisis in our lifetime. But it’s nice to have stocks in your portfolio that you know would be able to survive one were it to happen.
Today, we’re going to look at seven of the top stocks that would likely sail through the next major crisis unscathed. None are particularly sexy, but that’s a good thing. When it comes to building a durable portfolio, boring is beautiful.
So with no further ado, here are seven stocks that would survive the apocalypse … or come awfully close!
If Skynet ever becomes self-aware and decides to eliminate the human race, I have a feeling that McDonald’s (MCD) would somehow find a new menu item that Terminator robots would buy and eat. The company is just thatadaptable.
Think about how much the world has changed since McDonald’s was founded in the mid-1950s and how diets have evolved. Yet McDonald’s is still here and still going strong. The company has been extremely successful in updating its menu and keeping it in sync with with current diet trends.
Just a few years ago, it was widely believed that the rise of “fast casual” chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) would be the end of McDonald’s. Americans were eating healthier, after all, and the McDonald’s brand was looking a little passé.
Well, that’s not how it turned out. Today, it’s Chipotle that is struggling — thanks to yet another health scare, ironically enough — and McDonald’s that is delighting investors and trading near all-time highs.
The McDonald’s format gets stale about once every 10 years, and then the company has to reinvent itself. Might there come a time when this cycle breaks down and McDonald’s simply fails to reboot?
Maybe. But the company has been flipping burgers for 60 years, and it hasn’t happened yet.
To read the rest of the article, please see 7 Top Stocks That Would Survive an Apocalypse