Goldman names top ESG stocks from S&P 500

Goldman Sachs has named 50 companies from the S&P 500 that should benefit from ESG inflows.

The companies named include Intel, Walt Disney, General Mills, American Express, Amgen,
AT&T, Starbucks, T. Rowe Price, Abbott Laboratories and Ball, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, Best Buy, KeyCorp and Kellogg.

Goldman says these companies should benefit from inflows from investment managers based on their environmental and social scores. Analysts at the bank says the impact of E&S scores on stock prices is now at a five year high and that since 2012, companies in the MSCI All Country World Index that are in the top 20% of E&S scores had an annualized return of 11%, compared with 8% for companies in the bottom 20%.

The analysts noted that though the overall quality of ESG scores remains uneven, ESG funds continue to enjoy strong inflows with $28 billion so far this year flowing into US sustainable funds.