The 52-Week-High List: 19 S&P 500 Names On Tuesday
A heavy concentration in one corner of the market raises questions about the quality of the year’s new price highs.
Health Care accounts for 8 of the 19 S&P 500 stocks trading at their highest price of the past year. The sector’s presence is significant, followed by Communication Services and Financials with 3 names each. This clustering around a single theme poses a critical question for investors: is the business performance of these companies justifying their new, higher prices?
The list below contains the 10 largest of these names by market value.
The Ten Largest At New Highs
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V | $694.53 Bil | 0.5% | 5.5% | 6.2% | 10.6% |
| JNJ | $657.56 Bil | 0.5% | 1.2% | 3.2% | 56.9% |
| MRK | $386.74 Bil | 3.8% | 15.7% | 19.6% | 85.1% |
| VZ | $211.3 Bil | 0.2% | 3.5% | 6.2% | 20.8% |
| PFE | $162.59 Bil | 2.1% | 4.8% | 15.8% | 18.1% |
| NEM | $143.92 Bil | 2.5% | 16.5% | 44.6% | 93.0% |
| VRTX | $140.48 Bil | 1.0% | 4.7% | 15.4% | 39.9% |
| BMY | $138.42 Bil | 1.0% | 2.8% | 8.6% | 48.5% |
| FCX | $114.99 Bil | 2.7% | 20.5% | 27.4% | 86.6% |
| ABNB | $113.92 Bil | 0.2% | 4.0% | 29.7% | 46.6% |
Are these new highs built on solid ground?
A look inside the Health Care group shows a wide divergence. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which gained 3.2% over the last month, saw its revenue grow 8.1% over the last twelve months, supported by a 26.8% operating margin.
Contrast that with Merck (MRK). Its stock is up 19.6% in the last month, yet its revenue grew a slower 4.6% over the last twelve months with a 10.5% operating margin. The stock trades at 121.8 times trailing earnings (on trailing earnings that include at least one loss quarter, so the multiple is not comparable to a clean-year multiple). Pfizer (PFE) is also at a new high, though its revenue declined 0.2% over the last twelve months.
So how should an investor use this list?
Strength in a stock’s price can persist. A 52-week high is not an automatic signal to sell. But a price is just a price, not a verdict on the underlying business. It reflects a moment in the market, not a guaranteed future.
The disciplined approach is to treat the high as a starting point for new work. The key is to check whether the company’s fundamentals, like revenue growth and margins, truly earn the market’s higher valuation. A new high should invite scrutiny, not blind faith.
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: 8 of the 19 names are Health Care stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a healthcare ETF like XLV, which holds 5 of these names, is one way to own part of 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.