11 Large Cap Stocks Just Made New 52-Week Highs
A short list of market leaders hits new highs, but the real story lies in the different fundamentals earning those prices.
Amazon.com (AMZN), with a market value of about $3051.2 billion, is trading at its strongest price of the past year after a 17.0% gain over the last month. Yet it is part of a very small group. As of Monday, August 3, just 11 Large Cap stocks from the Russell 3000 are at 52-week highs. This raises a key question: is this strength concentrated in names whose businesses justify the run?
The list of names follows below.
The 10 Largest, By Market Cap
- Where The Buying Ran Strongest: 19 S&P 500 Stocks At 52-Week Highs
- 57 Small Cap Stocks Just Made New 52-Week Highs
- Where The Buying Ran Strongest: 22 Mid Cap Stocks At 52-Week Highs
- The 52-Week-Low List: 7 Names On Monday
- S&P 500 Movers | Winners: FSLR, COHR, LITE | Losers: MAR, FICO, EBAY
- Market Movers | Winners: AEMD, HYFM, FUSE | Losers: GYGY, CALC, MIRA
The table below shows the 10 largest of the 11 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | $3,051.2 Bil | 4.6% | 22.7% | 17.0% | 21.3% |
| ETN | $170.1 Bil | 5.5% | 9.9% | 10.0% | 15.2% |
| BMY | $133.4 Bil | 0.2% | 4.7% | 12.6% | 58.4% |
| SNOW | $106.2 Bil | 4.9% | 12.7% | 18.2% | 37.6% |
| ROST | $80.7 Bil | 0.7% | 3.9% | 18.5% | 86.9% |
| TGT | $67.8 Bil | 3.4% | 6.4% | 14.7% | 55.1% |
| GRMN | $58.7 Bil | 3.7% | 25.7% | 27.0% | 41.6% |
| AME | $55.8 Bil | 0.9% | 0.3% | 3.9% | 32.7% |
| EA | $52.5 Bil | 0.0% | 0.4% | 2.3% | 38.2% |
| AMP | $51.5 Bil | 1.5% | 2.9% | 13.2% | 8.3% |
Which companies have the fundamentals to match their price?
The list contains very different profiles. Eaton (ETN) trades at 42.6 times trailing earnings, a high multiple supported by revenue growth of 12.7% over the last twelve months and an operating margin of 18.2%. In contrast, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) trades at a much lower 14.4 times trailing earnings. Its revenue grew 3.1% over the same period, but it delivered a higher operating margin of 28.1%. The two industrial and pharmaceutical giants show that a new high can mean very different things for valuation and growth.
Is a 52-week high a buy signal or a warning?
Strength often persists, and a stock at its high is, by definition, a winner. But a price is not a verdict on the future. A 52-week high is simply a fact, an output of the market’s recent mood. The disciplined move is not to chase the price but to use it as a prompt. It is a signal to check whether the underlying business performance truly earns the new level.
A new high tells you what the market already believes. The harder question is which of these runs management itself is underwriting. Our Guidance Momentum screen tracks exactly that: stocks where the company raised its own forward numbers.
Strength Is A Clue. It Is Not A Plan
A stock at its 52-week high has momentum on its side, and momentum is a real force. It is also the most crowded signal in the market, and the difference between a run that lasts and one that tops is always the business underneath.
Checking that business, across thousands of names, is how the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio is assembled: roughly 30 companies that pass the quality screens, rebalanced on rules. It has a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the three major indices – the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000. Let the highs point; let the discipline decide.