Jim Cramer says to consider these five high-yielding stocks to upgrade your portfolio

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday gave investors a list of five “accidentally high yielders” that he believes will provide investors refuge in the currently unpredictable market.

“At the depths of the [2008] financial crisis, you got an amazing opportunity to buy the accidentally high yielders …  real companies with stable dividends that had seen their stocks come down so far that their dividends were sporting ridiculously high yields versus the old days. This moment’s becoming similar,” the “Mad Money” host said.

“It’s worth sticking with the stock market as long as you stick with the right groups and avoid the wrong ones — wrong ones being unprofitable tech companies or any other richly valued momentum stocks that have long since lost their momentum,” he added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.08% on Monday while the S&P 500 dropped 0.39%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.2%.

Cramer previously came up with a list of stocks with high yields in March, highlighting ten names he believed were investable.

“Of these, [Simon Property Group is] the only one I still feel confident about. … We came in too early, and we were too confident about retail. I’m not making that mistake again,” he said. “At the same time, even a high dividend isn’t enough to support a stock in a bad sector.”

“That’s why we need to high-grade our accidental high-yielder portfolio,” he added.

To come up with his list of accidental-high yielders, Cramer started out by looking for names in the S&P 500 to stick with the “largest of the large caps.” He pinpointed stocks that fit the following criteria:

• Does not have a yield below 3.5%
• Are down 25% or more from their highs

Left with 21 names that fit his conditions — which included Simon Property Group and Morgan Stanley, two names that were on his last list of high-yielders — Cramer further narrowed the list to five stocks.

Here is the list he came up with:

1. Huntington Bancshares
2. Truist 
3. Best Buy
4. Whirlpool
5. Digital Realty

Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Morgan Stanley.

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