Large Cap Stocks At 52-Week Highs: Thursday’s Full List
A short list of new highs shows a sharp split between price gains and underlying business profits.
Atlassian (TEAM) has gained 78.0% over the last month, landing it on a tight list of stocks trading at their highest price of the past year. As of Thursday, 7 companies with a market value above $40 billion reached that mark.
The list shows a distinct concentration, with 3 names from Health Care and 3 from Information Technology. The central question is what separates a stock price at a peak from a business at its peak. The names below offer a starting point.
Every Name On The List
The table below lists all 7 names this screen surfaced, largest first, with one-day, one-week, one-month, and one-year returns:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTNT | $127.65 Bil | 9.7% | 14.6% | 12.8% | 122.5% |
| CRWD | $57.84 Bil | 20.5% | 19.8% | 27.1% | 118.4% |
| XYZ | $50.71 Bil | 2.1% | 6.0% | 3.2% | 7.7% |
| TEAM | $48.44 Bil | 10.2% | 6.1% | 78.0% | 13.0% |
| NTRA | $47.93 Bil | 0.1% | 4.3% | 33.4% | 104.4% |
| IQV | $44.18 Bil | 0.3% | 2.5% | 6.0% | 39.7% |
| RVMD | $43.81 Bil | 2.7% | 4.4% | 22.2% | 493.3% |
But are the businesses earning these new prices?
Fortinet (FTNT) pairs its new high with an operating margin of 32.4% and revenue growth of 18.8% over the last twelve months. It trades at 59.7 times trailing earnings. In contrast, CrowdStrike (CRWD) saw its revenue grow 24.3% over the last twelve months, but its operating margin is -2.2%.
Elsewhere, Block (XYZ) trades at 142.0 times trailing earnings (on trailing earnings that include at least one loss quarter, so the multiple is not comparable to a clean-year multiple) after its revenue grew 5.1% over the last twelve months.
How should an investor read this list?
A 52-week high is a sign of strength, and strong stocks often continue to run. But a price is not a verdict on a company’s quality or its future. The disciplined move is to treat this list not as a set of recommendations, but as a prompt. It is a signal to check if the underlying business fundamentals justify the market’s current enthusiasm.
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.
One more pattern worth noticing: 3 of the 7 names are Information Technology stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a software ETF like IGV, which holds 3 of these names, is one way to own part of the group’s strength without betting on which single name leads it from here.
Chasing Highs Is A Reflex. Owning Strength Is A System
A 52-week-high list is seductive: everything on it has been going right. But buying a stock because it is at its high is buying a price, and prices revert; what persists is the quality underneath the run.
The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio is built to own that quality before and after it makes headlines: roughly 30 businesses selected for consistent cash generation, strong margins, and resilient balance sheets, sized and rebalanced with 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. Admire the list; own the system.