11 Blue Chip Stocks That Refuse to Rally With the Market’s All-Time Highs

It might seem odd on Main Street that the S&P 500 has managed to recapture all its losses after the panic selling seen in February and March. After all, the economy is still quite depressed and unemployment is close to 10%. The driving force behind the gains is the large companies that are actually winning because of how the pandemic has changed the economy.

Remember that the stock market is really a market of stocks. Not all sectors and companies trade up or down unilaterally. Many companies that would be considered “blue chip” leaders did not participate in the best August in 24 years. In fact, many of the top stocks are still trading down so far this year.

24/7 Wall St. has screened the S&P 500 companies and picked out 11 stocks that just refuse to participate in the rally. The reality is that many more companies could have been considered, but this screen only focused on one or two of the leaders from each sector. The real estate sectors were not included due to their dividend fluctuations.

The screen was used on a dividend-adjusted performance basis off via Finviz as of September 1, 2020. Here are 11 blue chips that have just refused to participate in the greatest recovery of our lives.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has traded sideways since mid-June and it was ousted from the Dow Jones industrials years ago. Shares were down over 23% year to date and were up less than 1% in the past month. No one even seems to care about AT&T’s nearly 7% dividend yield, as so much of its business remains under secular pressure and the Time Warner acquisition’s timing was rather unlucky in the world of COVID-19. Bullish analyst calls have been ignored so far when it comes to AT&T.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) is among the top infrastructure players in energy transportation. What stands out here is that it now screens as having a 10% yield equivalent (income plus return of capital). Its units were down nearly 3% in the past month but down 37% year to date.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was recently booted out of the Dow, and frankly the investors who are focused on the current economy stocks are just still wanting to invest in the big oil stocks. Exxon has now broken back under the $40 mark, putting its shares down 5% over the past month and down over 42% so far in 2020. The stock’s performance would look even worse without its 8% dividend yield. Goldman Sachs has tried to stay very bullish, but its clients just seem not to care.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) is one of the leaders in DRAM and NAND, and while technology has done well in 2020, it has not enjoyed the same recovery sentiment. A stealth revenue warning did not exactly help things. Micron was down 9% over the past month and was basically flat for the year. Investors really don’t ever seem to give Micron a solid valuation, and the current $45 or so stock price was at $60 before the February selling started and it went under $35 at the selling zenith in March.

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