It's tough to pick stocks that can be winners during volatile market conditions. The stock market experienced a big downturn last week followed by a rebound. Maybe the worst is over, but it's just as possible that an even steeper correction is on the way.
I could name a pretty long list of stocks that should be long-term winners. But identifying ones that can defy gravity during a rocky stretch over the short term as well isn't so easy. There are some that could do it, though. Here are three stocks that I really do think will make you richer in March (and beyond).
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1. Alphabet
In my view, one of the best ways to find stocks that should weather a storm pretty well is to see which ones are already doing so. As a case in point, Alphabet (GOOG 1.25%) (GOOGL 1.27%) actually delivered a small gain last week while most tech stocks were tanking.
How is Alphabet holding up so well? For one thing, it's rock-solid from a financial standpoint. It reported nearly $57 billion in revenue and more than $15 billion in profits in the fourth quarter. The company's cash stockpile stands at close to $137 billion. Few companies come even close to Alphabet's financial strength.
Investors also recognize that Alphabet's fortunes are likely to get even better over the short term. With a light at the end of the tunnel now visible with the pandemic, the economy should rebound. That's good news for Alphabet's search platforms, which should benefit from increased advertising spending. It also should help sustain the already solid momentum for the company's Google Cloud business.
In addition, Google just launched YouTube Shorts in the U.S. market. This new functionality competes directly against the popular TikTok video-sharing app. With these short-term drivers combined with long-term opportunities including Waymo's self-driving car technology, I think Alphabet is likely to be a winner this month and throughout the next decade.
2. Enterprise Products Partners
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD -0.31%) is another stock that went against the grain last week with its shares rising nearly 9%. The key catalyst for the midstream energy company was the announcement that it's buying power from a solar project developed by EDF Renewables.
2020 was a tough year for the energy sector. Enterprise Products Partners' fourth-quarter results reflected this, with the company's earnings and cash flow declining significantly from the prior-year period.
However, the company looks like a great recovery play this year. The rollouts of vaccines combined with government stimulus should boost the demand for natural gas and oil. Enterprise also is moving forward with three big projects over the short term that should generate additional cash flow, including an expansion of its ethane pipeline on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
There's another important way that Enterprise Products Partners will make investors richer, too: its dividends. The company's distribution yield currently stands at a little under 8%. This stock won't have to deliver much appreciation to generate total returns that easily beat the overall market.
3. Pfizer
Pfizer (PFE 0.23%) stands out as a leader in helping bring an end to the pandemic. The BNT162b2 vaccine that it's marketing with partner BioNTech has already been given to millions of people. And like Alphabet and Enterprise Products Partners, Pfizer's shares rose last week even while the stock market floundered.
The big drugmaker reported good news on Wednesday that helped boost its stock. Pfizer announced that the Food and Drug Administration had approved Lorbrena as a first-line treatment for anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The drug is already on the market as a second-line treatment for NSCLC.
This latest approval is yet another component of Pfizer's rejuvenation. After several years of underperformance, the company now expects to deliver solid growth. One major reason is that Pfizer no longer is weighed down by older drugs that have lost patent exclusivity after the merger of its Upjohn unit with Mylan in November that formed a new company, Viatris.
But the big story for Pfizer over the short term is definitely BNT162b2. The company stated in February that it expects sales for the vaccine will top $18 billion this year. That number seems likely to grow as Pfizer and BioNTech land additional supply deals, making both companies -- as well as Pfizer shareholders -- richer.
