Here's a calm portfolio of low volatility stocks with income to counter recent wild stock moves

Published Fri, Feb 4 20229:58 AM ESTUpdated Fri, Feb 4 20221:54 PM EST

With stocks posting wild swings in the past week, investors may find comfort in these historically low-volatility names. Large-cap companies like PayPal and Facebook saw their shares move double-digit percentage points after reporting quarterly earnings. Amazon shares also jumped more than 11% on its fourth-quarter results. Given those moves, CNBC Pro sought to find stocks that would make for a calm portfolio. To do this, we first ranked S & P 500 stocks by their implied volatility, which gives us the names the options market believes will be steady. Then, we looked at historical volatility and weeded out any stocks with a beta above 1, or the names that historically have moved more than the S & P 500 on average. The names left are less volatile than the benchmark index. Next, we found stocks that are positive on the year, pay at least a 2% dividend and have a buy rating from a majority of analysts. Take a look at the list below: (Source: FactSet. As of Feb. 4, 2022.) Many stocks in our screen belong to utilities, consumer staples and health-care sectors. Names in these spaces are typically categorized as defensive because they tend to be stable regardless of how the overall market performs. American Electric Power is a utility company and has the lowest implied volatility and historic beta in CNBC Pro's screen. The stock is up 1.4% in 2022 as of Thursday's close. One health-care stock from our screen is AbbVie . The biopharmaceutical company is Mizuho's top pick in the sector for 2022. "We expect the biopharma sector to continue to be driven by innovation in 2022, with numerous upcoming clinical and regulatory catalysts likely to separate this year's winners and losers," Mizuho's Vamil Divan said in a January report. Coca-Cola is a consumer staples stock that made our list. The company is slated to report earnings next week. "We think Coca-Cola will benefit from economies re-opening and is well positioned to reaccelerate organic growth above the top-end of its long-term 4-6% range," JPMorgan's Andrea Teixeira said in a note Friday. Other stocks in our screen include Corning , Philip Morris and Dominion Energy .

The Coca-Cola logo is displayed on the facade of a production hall. Coca-Cola European Partners Deutschland GmbH (CCEP DE), headquartered in Berlin, is responsible for the bottling and distribution of Coca-Cola brand products throughout Germany.

Andreas Arnold | picture alliance | Getty Images

With stocks posting wild swings in the past week, investors may find comfort in these historically low-volatility names.