Best Investments To Survive A Stock Market Crash

When I look at all of the current market volatility. I found top three new stocks in this financial crisis. Now, these are stocks that are crashing by very large amounts, but that also have strong businesses or at least have the potential to dominate their respective markets over the long term. 

And so I feel that they have a lot to offer investors at today's current prices. And to make things even more fun and interesting. I specifically look for one low-risk stock, one medium-risk, and one high-risk option as well, just to give you guys a more wide variety of different stocks relating to risk versus reward. 

I only do this for fun to give you guys some different ideas of what's available out there in the market stocks that I happen to like but I am not a financial advisor so you should always do your own research on individual stocks and make your own decisions before invest in stocks. 

#1. Number

We'll be starting with our low-risk option a very dominant company with a stock that is very likely to perform well over the long term. And today, I'm going with a stock that I own myself is Apple($AAPL), which is a stock that rarely ever dips, they are currently going through one of their largest dips with a drop of over 20% from its highs.

And it's now sitting closer to closer to the bottom of its 52-week range. Now I chose this as our low-risk option. But the reality is that Apple does actually have some risk that comes along with it, especially coming from the current state of the economy, since Apple does rely so heavily on selling high-quality, but also high-priced items like phones, computers, tablets, watches, and more. 

And the problem is that during weak economic times, consumers tend to put off upgrading their phones or buying expensive computers and things like that. And unfortunately, we might already be in a recession right now, since US GDP surprisingly fell by over 1% last quarter. 

And now one of the Fed's most trusted models is also predicting another 1% Drop this quarter as well, which would technically give us the technical definition of a recession, two-quarters of drops in a row. Now many economists still think that this will not happen. But a lot of them are also predicting that a recession could still hit next year at around a 40% likelihood. 

So no matter how you really think of this or when you think of recession we'll actually hit the point is that we are at risk of one right now. And it would definitely hurt Apple sales and profits if we go through. And as a result, analysts are expecting Apple's revenue growth to only be in the mid to high single digits both this year and the next. 

However, the reason why I still consider Apple low risk over the long term is that we have to put some of this into context. Now, first of all, Apple has been a cyclical type of business. So you're going to see lower growth during times when they don't release exciting new products. 

But on top of that, you also have to consider that Apple grew their sales by a massive 33% last year to a record-breaking over $350 billion, while also growing their profits by an even larger amount of 67% to a record-breaking nearly $100 billion of net income that is absolutely insane.

Like how many companies do you know that do 100 billion of just pure profit in a single year? So obviously, at those gigantic numbers, you're gonna need a few years of correction to slow down the growth. But even here, they're still expected to grow their profits over the next five years at an even higher rate than the previous five years. And that's crazy. 

So for the stock to drop over 20%. I just think if you're thinking long-term, this is probably a good entry point. Sure, the valuation is still a bit rich at a forward PE of over 20. But Apple will always be an expensive stock and even hear their gap PE ratios are still either the same or just slightly higher than the sector. 

So why exactly wouldn't you want to own the biggest player at around the same valuation as everyone else, especially when you consider how much more reliable they are? I mean, they've got unbelievable profits. They've got an ecosystem of products and services that encourages customers to stay hooked to the brand. And it keeps them coming back for new upgrades and services. 

And they even have one of the absolute best balance sheets in the entire world with a mind-blowing cash investments pile of over $200 billion dollars, which they can use to not only grow their dividend that only yields less than 1% right now but has some excellent growth metrics on it like a tiny payout ratio of less than 15% but they can also use had to buy back their own stock.

Which they extended by another $90 billion last quarter, making your shares more valuable over time. And of course, the biggest reason of all, so that they can use all of their money for innovation and future growth, which is not only evident in all the new markets that they've been entering recently.

Like, for example, video streaming with Apple TV, you've got the financials market that released the apple card, and even their new Apple Pay Later service for the fast-growing Buy now pay later market. But it's also evident in just how much speculation constantly circulates around Apple.

For example, we always hear about the prospect of a folding phone, which by the way, if they release a folding phone, I think that thing is kind of so like crazy, might even trigger like the next upgrade supercycle similar to the effects of 5g. And you even have speculation of things drastically different from what they currently do.

For example, in an electric car, where and these are all things that would only make their ecosystem even more sticky than it already is. Imagine if you're driving an Apple car, I mean, what are the chances that you're going to switch over to Android if you're using an Apple Car and Apple Computer and Apple Watch and Apple phone, you get the idea. 

Again, this stock is not necessarily cheap, but I do enjoy owning this one for the very long term and I sleep very well at night knowing that it is fairly low risk as long as I have that long-term time horizon.

#2. Number

Stock number two is our medium-risk option, which we usually go with a dividend-paying stock since that can lower the risk a little because if the stock price is falling, obviously the dividend yield is going to start rising, which makes people want to buy the stock and thus it can sometimes help stabilize it and help the stock recover.

So today will be no exception as I'm actually picking a dividend King, meaning that they've increased their dividend for over 50 years in a row. And that's the very large conglomerate company here called 3M ($MMM). Now when looking at the stock, there's no way to sugarcoat it 3M has been absolutely destroyed in recent years crashing by about 50% from its highs and leaving it right near the lows that they saw during the 2020 market crash. 

As a result, though their dividend is now one of the most attractive in the market. At these prices, the yield has climbed to essentially the highest level that we've ever seen as it approaches close to 5%, which is more than 150% higher than the rest of the sector. And sure there are definitely other stocks out there that can get you a similar yield. 

But how many of those have a monumental growth history of over six decades in a row of not just paying the dividend? But actually growing it every single year, and yet their payout ratio is still very reasonable at less than 60%. So it's looking very safe, which is basically what you get with a dividend stock like this.

If you're looking for growth, of course, you're gonna have to look elsewhere. But if you want reliable dividend income, along with a stock that in my opinion has a huge opportunity for recovery. Considering that they are trading well below the sector, then 3M might be a great choice because I really feel like most of the stock crashing has been due to things out of their control. 

Anyway, 3M sells all kinds of household and industrial products like post-it notes, scotch tape, command strips, various automotive electric, and even healthcare products to like masks and so on. But because of the very broad range of products, their business is left heavily tied to the macro economy, which we know has been unstable lately.

And that's been causing what would typically be very stable revenues for 3M, to now become a bit more volatile. And the fear is that their business will continue to struggle because of the current weakness in the economy. But I just think that the selling is overdone at this point because 3M still managed to grow their sales in 2020 by 1%, then a whopping 10% last year. 

And they're still expected to do around one to 3% over the next two years as well. Yet the stock is trading as if the company is in heavy decline. And while the stock is also falling due to other issues like lawsuits and restructuring their business to address environmental concerns, and even a lack of innovative new products to bring about growth.

I just think that all of these are being dealt with by 3M over time. In fact, on the innovation side of things, they've been spending billions of dollars on research and development in recent years, and are now averaging close to 4000 new pens per year. And while growth is still lackluster for this already very large giant.

Their sales and profits were both at a record high last year despite the stock trading at one of the lowest valuations that we've ever seen. Like I said the risk is there. But my gut tells me that with the low stock price and the high dividend yield right now is probably one of the best times to be buying 3M stock.

#3. Number

The third and final stock, which is also going to be our high-risk option. And for these, I like to go with smaller, more speculative companies that are definitely risky, but they also have a lot of future growth potential. And this time, I'm going with a stock that I don't already own myself. 

 Doing some research on them lately. And I gotta say, this is a stock that is getting super attracted to me, the more that it falls, and it's making me really want to go out and buy a very soon, but that stock is PubMatic ($PUBM). Now, if you've never heard of them, this is a fast-growing digital advertising technology company. 

Which helps connect publishers with advertisers and provides a platform for handling all of their advertising needs, whether it's websites, or apps, or videos, or whatever else really any form of digital advertising, which is a huge market to operate in over the past year PubMatic did just a bit over $200 million in sales.

When looking at the advertising market, just programmatic advertising in the US alone, which is their specialty, by the way, was already worth over $100 billion last year and is expected to reach nearly 150 billion by next year as well. Globally, that number gets even more outstanding, at over $400 billion dollars last year on growth of close to 30%. 

And it's expected to surpass half a trillion by next year as well. In other words, there is nothing but gigantic growth to be had here for such a small company like this to be operating in such a massive market. As a result, PubMatic nearly doubled their profits last year, which is actually very surprising to me that they're even profitable in the first place considering how young and relatively small they are.

Because, for example, their biggest rival in magnate, they're like twice the size of PubMatic. And they're not even profitable yet, which just goes to show you how good pubs margins are, and how well they're being run as a business. But despite all of those positives, the stock has surprisingly big been getting destroyed over the past year after its IPO in 2020. 

This stock initially skyrocketed to about $80 A share because of all the lockdowns. You know, people were stuck on their phones or computers. And that really boosted the digital advertising market. But since then, the economy, of course, has been getting destroyed, which is putting pressure on advertiser's budgets, and thus investors feel that pub's growth will slow down.

Which is why the stock has been crashing ever since currently down almost 80% from its highs to just $16 a share. But while growth is technically slowing down, it's still pretty good at over 20% revenue growth in both this year and the next. That drop in growth, though, is putting pressure on their profits, which is why their forward PE ratio was actually higher than their trailing ratio. 

But the way I see it, I just think they'll eventually do better than how they did last year. So a trailing PE ratio of only around 15. I think that's dirt cheap. For a company like this when you consider the future potential. It's a long-term speculative stock. And unfortunately, I do own just too many of these at the moment. 

But I gotta say that at these prices, it is looking so damn attractive that I really think that I'm probably going to be buying this stock very soon. I happen to really like it at these levels, especially as a spec stock, I think it's one of the best options in the market.