Volatile markets can sometimes drive investors into the assumed safety of large-cap stocks. But a warning: Not every big company can help you weather the storm.

September is a notoriously difficult month for the stock market. That's without considering the current risks related to the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, or flashing recession signals, or other economic hurdles popping up around the globe.

"The global macroeconomic picture continues to show fragility," writes Northern Trust Wealth Management CIO Katie Nixon. "We expect overall growth to trend lower under the weight of growing trade uncertainty."

While investors might find shelter in big, blue-chip companies, you must be able to tell the difference between high-quality large caps and simply high-market-value large caps. The pros are here to help.

Here are seven large-cap stocks to sell or avoid, according to Wall Street analysts. TipRanks, which collects ratings from roughly 15,000 Wall Street analysts, has honed in on a list of companies that are well-known but not particularly well-loved right now. We'll look into just how bearish sentiment is, and why the experts say you should avoid some of them, and boot the rest if you own them.

General Electric

Getty Images

Embattled multinational General Electric (, $8.81) looked like it was finally stabilizing for most of this year. However, a recent report alleging accounting fraud "bigger than Enron" - a controversial one that some