These stocks close out the year strong, with recent perfect track records for the 4th quarter
With the fourth quarter underway, certain stocks have a recent perfect track record of closing out the last quarter of the year higher. The fourth quarter often sees high levels of trading activity as investors close out their positions for the year and strategize for the new year. In the past few years, the market has experienced volatility at year-end. To find the stocks that have proven to perform well in the last quarter of the year, CNBC Pro looked for stocks in the S & P 500 that gained in every fourth quarter of the past five years. Six stocks made the cut with an average fourth-quarter gain of between 4.7% and 9.8% from 2016 through 2020. Take a look at these historic fourth-quarter winners: Two names on CNBC Pro's screen are exchanges: Intercontinental Exchange , the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, and Cboe Global Markets , which owns the Chicago Board Options Exchange. The two stocks have averaged returns of 4.7% and 8.4%, respectively, during the past five fourth quarters. Shares of exchanges tend to perform well during periods of volatility because these companies make money from transactions, so profits increase when trading activity swells. Analysts also like Intercontinental Exchange, with a consensus price target about 20% higher than Monday's closing price. To be sure, past performance does not guarantee success this year and five years is a statistically small sample. Still, these stocks have been tough to beat closing out the last several years. CNBC Pro's screen also include a couple defensive shares, meaning those shares tend to be stable regardless of how the overall market performs. Market strategists typically categorize the utilities, health care and consumer staples sectors as defensive. Power company NRG Energy has the highest average return on the list with a mean fourth-quarter gain of 9.8% response over the last five years. The stock has implied upside of 15.4% based on its consensus price target. Analysts on average think healthcare name Hologic has the most room to run on CNBC Pro's screen of fourth-quarter winners. Hologic is projected to rise 21.4% in the next 12 months. Other names that have tended to win in the fourth quarter are Broadcom and AutoZone .

Jin Liee | Bloomberg | Getty Images