Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad  by Matt
Doiron  A stock's beta measures how much its price tends to
fluctuate in line with market indices; higher beta stocks tend
to outperform during bull markets, but underperform during
recessions when markets tumble. Income investors sometimes avoid
many high yield stocks solely because they tend statistically to
rise and fall with the overall market, instead preferring names
which are less sensitive to economic conditions. It's also
common to take into account the size of a company when
evaluating its vulnerability to bear markets- better
capitalized, more "blue chip" companies tend to be safer in
these times. Using data from Fidelity, here are five stocks
which pay dividend yields of at least 3%, have a market
capitalization of at least $25 billion, and feature beta
statistics of 0.3 or lower:  Leading our list is McDonald's
(MCD), a common example of a recession proof stock. Indeed, the
beta here is only 0.3. However, market optimism on the quick ser