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Written by Reuben Gregg Brewer for The Motley Fool
Bank of America joins other finance giants in warning that the stock market looks stretched.
Realty Income is a high-yield REIT, built from the ground up to be a reliable dividend stock.
Visa is a fee-driven financial services company that is likely to be resilient to economic storms.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) recently warned that Wall Street is due for a pullback. It isn't the only financial giant to point out the risks investors are facing. Perhaps the most eloquent warning came from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, who framed the risks as tectonic plates shifting below the surface. When tectonic plates violently collide, you get earthquakes.
If you want to stay invested, now is the time to focus on companies that are built to last. Companies with resilient business models that will carry them through a market pullback, even if that pullback is a deep bear market. Realty Income (NYSE: O) is a good option for dividend investors, while Visa (NYSE: V) is a solid choice for growth investors. Here's why.
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Realty Income is the largest net lease real estate investment trust (REIT), with a portfolio of over 15,500 properties. A net lease requires the tenant to pay for most property-level operating costs. This keeps Realty Income's operating costs low and helps to protect it from today's high inflation. The portfolio, meanwhile, is geographically diversified across North America and Europe. And while most of its properties are single-tenant retail assets, that's the most liquid piece of the net-lease market. It also owns industrial properties and other unique assets, such as casinos and data centers.
The company's resilience shows up in multiple areas. For example, during the Great Recession, occupancy never fell below 96%. That means it continued to collect the rent on the vast majority of its properties despite what was happening on Wall Street and Main Street at the time. That resilience in the face of adversity helps explain how Realty Income has increased its dividend annually for 31 consecutive years.
To be fair, Realty Income is a bit of a tortoise, but it comes with a lofty 5.7% yield. In fact, rising interest rates have investors worried about growth, leading to a stock pullback. If you are looking for a resilient, high-yield income stream, this could be your opportunity.
Visa's dividend yield is 0.7%, which is even lower than the S&P 500 index's (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) yield. This payment processing company is all about growth. Essentially, it charges a fee every time a card with its brand is used. The fee to safely connect customers with sellers is small, but they add up. In the fiscal third quarter of 2026, the company processed 71.7 billion transactions, which was a 10% year-over-year increase. Revenues came in at $11.6 billion, up 14%.
The key here is that the world continues to move away from cash and toward card-based payments. The growth of e-commerce is helping that trend, since cash isn't an option online. Even if there were a market downturn or recession, the long-term trends supporting Visa's business aren't likely to screech to a halt. And since Visa only processes payments, it doesn't assume the financial risk that credit card issuers do. It is far more resilient to financial strain than, say, a bank might be.
Highlighting Visa's growth is the fact that its dividend has increased at an annualized rate of over 15% over the past decade. That will make it interesting to dividend growth investors, but it really speaks to how powerful Visa's growth formula is right now. And to sweeten the investment thesis, the price-to-sales and price-to-earnings ratios are currently slightly below their five-year averages, suggesting the stock is attractively priced.
During a bear market, investors tend to sell stocks indiscriminately. Focusing on stocks with resilient businesses and growing dividends can help you ignore the market's volatility. Realty Income's high yield lets you track dividends rather than stock prices. Visa's fast-growing business and dividend will let you monitor for dividend hikes rather than price swings. There's no telling when the next stock drawdown will occur, perhaps soon, according to some big banks, but owning Realty Income and Visa can help you sleep well at night when it does.
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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Realty Income. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase, Realty Income, and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.