Defend Your Portfolio With These 7 Stocks

Standard & Poor's research shows that consumer staples, utilities, and health-care stocks outperform the market 80%-90% of the time during recessions. As my Foolish colleagues Tim Hanson and Brian Richards point out, this outperformance owes to their reliability and healthy dividend policies.

With that in mind, I used our new CAPS screening tool to discover which defensive stocks our 165,000-member CAPS investment community loves most.

These stocks have:

• Market capitalizations greater than $10 billion.
• Debt-to-equity ratios below 50%, which indicates rock-solid balance sheets.
• Trailing three-year revenue growth above 5%, to demonstrate enduring demand for products.
• Dividend yields greater than 2%.
• Four- or five-star ratings from our CAPS community.

Data from Motley Fool CAPS.

Of course, screens are merely a first step in the stock-selection process. As Miguel de Cervantes -- whose overly idealistic Don Quixote flails impulsively after unachievable dreams -- reminds us, "Diligence is the mother of good fortune." Come and join us on Motley Fool CAPS to dig into these companies further. Let our 165,000-strong (and counting) CAPS community help you polish your portfolio.

For related Foolishness:

• The End Game for Wall Street
• Wall Street Reform's Winners and Losers
• Financial Reform MVPs