Investors who buy low-beta growth stocks such as Boston Scientific and Mastercard right now could see better performance as a result, according to Trivariate Research. Softening economic data and concerns around the Trump Administration’s new tariff policies have given the stock market whiplash. Stocks rallied on the last day of February, started off March in a selloff, and bounced back on Wednesday as the White House offered a month-long exemption on automobile tariffs, raising optimism of more concessions in the future. Still, investors are divided on whether near term market volatility can ease, given the number of unknowns regarding the duration and economic consequences of the tariffs. But against this backdrop of heightened caution, investors may be able to carve out gains by holding low beta growth stocks, according to Trivariate Research, headed by Adam Parker, former chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley. A low beta stock simply flags companies that are less volatile than the broad market, whose beta is 1.0. Stocks with beta below 1.0 are usually less risky, while stocks with a beta over 1.0 may pose more risk with potentially higher returns. “Because our work convincingly showed that a combination of low- and high-beta growth stocks results in better performance than all average beta growth stocks, investors this week asked us for some specific low beta growth stock ideas,” the macroeconomic research firm wrote in a recent note. “These could be good candidates to balance high-beta stocks in a growth portfolio.” In the same report, Parker, Trivariate’s founder, shared a basket of high-quality, low-beta growth stocks that are higher year-to-date. Some of those companies are shown below: One stock Trivariate highlighted was Check Point Software Technologies . The IT security company has surged 40% in the past 12 months through Wednesday, and has risen 19% this year alone. The stock currently has a beta of 0.60. Earlier this week, Piper Sandler upgraded shares to an overweight rating from neutral. Analyst Rob Owens cited improving underlying momentum as a catalyst. “New management (specifically CEO Nadav Zafrir) has served to galvanize the CHKP story, better positioning it to capitalize on the security opportunity,” he wrote. “While this is likely to manifest in incremental improvements to results, we believe the narrative will get better, especially if the company can flirt with double-digit growth in the future — which will drive increased multiple, in our view.” Owens’ price target of $260 implies potential upside of 17% from Check Point’s Wednesday close. Medical equipment maker Boston Scientific has risen 56% in the last 12 months and 17% since the year began. Shares are currently trading with a beta of 0.58. In January, Deutsche Bank upgraded shares to a buy rating from hold. Analyst Pito Chickering’s price target of $108 is about 3% above where the stock is currently trading. “So the BSX story has become simpler, and as one of the best-in-class medtech names, we believe BSX is poised again to outperform in 2025, and we are upgrading the shares to Buy with a $108 price target which is 34x our 2026E EPS,” Chickering wrote. With respective betas of 0.55 and 0.50, Mastercard and Visa were two other stocks that Trivariate highlighted as a low-beta growth ideas. Shares of Mastercard have risen 19% over the last 12 months, while Visa has climbed 26%. Earlier this week, Mizuho highlighted Mastercard as a potential beneficiary of Trump administration tariffs. “Our bottom-up analysis of consumer spend categories that are directly impacted by potential tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China shows that V and MA could be modest beneficiaries of the pass-through of higher prices to consumers, even after taking into account a potential slowdown in demand,” wrote analyst Dan Dolev. Dolev currently has an outperform rating on shares of Mastercard and a neutral rating for Visa.
