Where The Buying Ran Strongest: 19 S&P 500 Stocks At 52-Week Highs
A market of individual winners produces a varied list of new highs, led by some of the world’s largest names.
On Monday, 19 S&P 500 stocks are trading at their 52-week highs. This is not a broad-based surge, as the S&P 500 itself has returned just +1.7% over the last month. Instead, it is a market of distinct winners, led by the largest company on the list, Amazon.com (AMZN), with a market value of about $3051.2 billion after a 17.0% one-month gain.
When a stock’s price runs so far ahead of the market, the critical question is whether its business has earned the new level. The full list of names follows.
The Biggest Names On The List
- 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
- 11 Large Cap Stocks Just Made New 52-Week Highs
- 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 19 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% |
| 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% |
| NTAP | $36.4 Bil | 2.5% | 7.7% | 19.0% | 78.7% |
Is every new high built on the same foundation?
The data suggests they are not. Consider Amazon.com (AMZN), which trades at 22.6 times trailing earnings while its revenue grew 15.8% over the last twelve months. The company posts an operating margin of 12.1%.
Contrast that with Eaton (ETN), the second-largest name on the list. It trades at a much higher multiple of 42.6 times trailing earnings. Eaton’s revenue grew 12.7% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin is 18.2%. Both are strong businesses at new highs, but their valuations tell different stories about price relative to performance.
A 52-week high is a starting point, not a conclusion.
A list of stocks at their strongest prices of the year is a useful screen for strength. These are companies with clear positive sentiment.
But a high is a price, not a verdict on the business itself. The disciplined next step for any name on this list is to ask if the underlying fundamentals, from revenue growth to margins, support the market’s new and higher valuation. The price is a fact; whether the business earns it is the essential question.
Before chasing any name on this list, ask what the company itself expects next. Our Guidance Momentum screen surfaces the stocks whose managements just raised their own outlooks, which is the momentum that tends to have staying power.
New Highs Fade. Discipline Compounds
Some of the names on this list will keep setting highs for years, and some are at the top of their run right now. Sorting one from the other, name by name, every day, is the work most investors never keep up with.
That sorting is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does systematically: about 30 quality businesses screened for the fundamentals that sustain a run, held with rules instead of excitement. 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. Use the high list for ideas; use the portfolio for the compounding.