The 52-Week-High List: 20 S&P 500 Names On Friday
A narrow list of market leaders is hitting new highs, but the real story is the kind of company driving the gains.
As of Friday, August 21, just 20 S&P 500 stocks are trading at their 52-week highs, a narrow count while the index itself gained 3.7% over the last month. The list is dominated by a single theme: Health Care accounts for 10 of the names. With the largest company on the list, Visa (V), coming from outside that group, the central question is whether this is a market of broad strength or one defined by a few specific industries.
The 10 largest of these names by market capitalization are detailed below.
The Biggest Names On The List
The table below shows the 10 largest of the 20 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V | $670.84 Bil | 1.5% | 1.9% | 5.7% | 8.7% |
| KO | $391.91 Bil | 0.7% | 3.9% | 12.2% | 32.5% |
| MRK | $377.1 Bil | 2.4% | 12.3% | 16.9% | 86.2% |
| SCHW | $196.08 Bil | 2.3% | 1.1% | 10.8% | 19.1% |
| UNP | $182.8 Bil | 1.3% | 4.9% | 1.2% | 39.6% |
| NEM | $140.13 Bil | 3.1% | 11.7% | 38.9% | 92.7% |
| ABNB | $112.01 Bil | 1.2% | 1.8% | 36.1% | 49.9% |
| FCX | $110.31 Bil | 7.6% | 15.3% | 20.7% | 87.6% |
| EOG | $81.42 Bil | 0.6% | 7.3% | 5.2% | 33.8% |
| NSC | $78.77 Bil | 1.2% | 4.9% | 1.0% | 25.0% |
But is every new high built on the same foundation?
Consider two of the largest companies making new highs. Visa (V) has seen its revenue grow 14.4% over the last twelve months, generating an operating margin of 65.6%. It currently trades at 30.9 times trailing earnings.
In contrast, Merck (MRK) trades at 118.8 times trailing earnings. Its revenue grew 4.6% over the last twelve months, with an operating margin of 10.5%. The figures show that a stock price at its strongest level in a year can rest on very different business results.
A 52-week high is a starting point, not a conclusion.
Strength often persists, and a list of stocks at new highs is a useful screen for what is working in the market. But a price is not a verdict on a business.
The disciplined step is to treat the high as a prompt to investigate further. The key question is always whether the underlying business performance can support the stock’s new level.
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.
One more pattern worth noticing: 10 of the 20 names are Health Care stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a healthcare ETF like XLV is one way to own the group’s strength without betting on which single name leads it from here.
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.