Which stocks are most liquid? Goldman Sachs lists 50 of them
Seeking Alpha News (Sun, 13-Apr 1:28 PM)
liquidity basket tracked by Goldman Sachs has demonstrated resilience, thanks in part to the strong fundamental characteristics of its constituents. These companies generally exhibit high quality metrics, such as robust balance sheets, steady earnings growth, and strong returns on equity—all factors that may have helped support valuations even as market volatility surged.
The performance gap between high- and low-liquidity stocks has remained surprisingly stable despite recent market turbulence and worsening liquidity conditions, David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, said in an April 11 report.
Typically, in times of market stress, highly liquid stocks are among the first to be sold as investors look to reduce risk quickly. This dynamic often causes these stocks to underperform during broad market drawdowns. However, Kostin noted that the current environment is proving to be an exception.
The high liquidity basket tracked by Goldman has demonstrated resilience, thanks in part to the strong fundamental characteristics of its constituents. These companies generally exhibit high quality metrics, such as robust balance sheets, steady earnings growth and strong returns on equity — all factors that may have helped support valuations even as market volatility surged.
Goldman maintains two custom equity baskets, each with 50 stocks from the Russell 1000 Index, to monitor this trend. The firm rebalanced both baskets, including the High Liquidity (GSTHLLIQ) portfolio below, to reflect the evolving market landscape.
The illiquidity ratio measures how trading volumes affect a stock's price. In this case, it's the one-month average of the daily absolute value of returns divided by the dollars of trading volumes.
Goldman’s list of most illiquid stocks can be found at this link.
| Constituents of the Goldman Sachs High Liquidity basket (GSTHHLIQ) | ||
| Ticker | Name | Illiquidity Ratio (12-month average) |
| (NASDAQ:NVDA) | NVIDIA Corp. | 0.1 |
| (AAPL) | Apple Inc. | 0.1 |
| (MSFT) | Microsoft Corp. | 0.1 |
| (TSLA) | Tesla, Inc. | 0.1 |
| (AMZN) | Amazon.com, Inc. | 0.2 |
| (META) | Meta Platforms Inc | 0.2 |
| (GOOGL) | Alphabet Inc. | 0.3 |
| (AMD) | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. | 0.4 |
| (V) | Visa Inc. | 0.4 |
| (BRK.B) | Berkshire Hathaway Inc. | 0.4 |
| (AVGO) | Broadcom Inc. | 0.5 |
| (JPM) | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 0.5 |
| (LLY) | Eli Lilly and Company | 0.5 |
| (NFLX) | Netflix, Inc. | 0.5 |
| (UNH) | UnitedHealth Group Incorporated | 0.5 |
| (COST) | Costco Wholesale Corp. | 0.5 |
| (XOM) | Exxon Mobil Corp. | 0.6 |
| (MA) | Mastercard Incorporated | 0.6 |
| (JNJ) | Johnson & Johnson | 0.7 |
| (PG) | Procter & Gamble Company | 0.7 |
| (BAC) | Bank of America Corp | 0.7 |
| (WMT) | Walmart Inc. | 0.7 |
| (KO) | Coca-Cola Company | 0.7 |
| (CRM) | Salesforce, Inc. | 0.8 |
| (ADBE) | Adobe Inc. | 0.8 |
| (CSCO) | Cisco Systems, Inc. | 0.8 |
| (CVX) | Chevron Corp. | 0.8 |
| (HD) | Home Depot, Inc. | 0.8 |
| (MCD) | McDonald's Corp. | 0.9 |
| (MRK) | Merck & Co., Inc. | 0.9 |
| (PEP) | PepsiCo, Inc. | 0.9 |
| (LIN) | Linde plc | 0.9 |
| (ABBV) | AbbVie, Inc. | 1.0 |
| (DIS) | Walt Disney Company | 1.0 |
| (PFE) | Pfizer Inc. | 1.1 |
| (TMUS) | T-Mobile US, Inc. | 1.1 |
| (VZ) | Verizon Communications Inc. | 1.1 |
| (ACN) | Accenture Plc | 1.1 |
| (TMO) | Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. | 1.1 |
| (MU) | Micron Technology, Inc. | 1.2 |
| (ORCL) | Oracle Corp. | 1.2 |
| (IBM) | International Business Machines Corp. | 1.2 |
| (PLTR) | Palantir Technologies Inc. | 1.2 |
| (BKNG) | Booking Holdings Inc. | 1.2 |
| (WFC) | Wells Fargo & Company | 1.2 |
| (QCOM) | QUALCOMM Incorporated | 1.2 |
| (BA) | Boeing Company | 1.2 |
| (HON) | Honeywell International Inc. | 1.2 |
| (T) | AT&T Inc | 1.3 |
| (NKE) | NIKE, Inc. | 1.3 |
| Median stock | 0.8 | |
| Source: Goldman Sachs | ||
