The 52-Week-High List: 6 S&P 500 Names On Friday
A small group of stocks reaches new highs, with the gains heavily concentrated in just one corner of the market.
Marathon Petroleum (MPC), a company with a market value of about $108.8 billion, has gained 17.8% over the last month to reach its highest price in a year. It leads a very short list: just 6 S&P 500 stocks are trading at their 52-week highs as of Friday, August 28, a day when the S&P 500 itself is up 3.7% over the last month.
The list is dominated by a single industry. Three of the six names are from Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing, an industry in the Energy sector. This raises a key question: is this narrow strength a signal, or just a pocket of the market running hot? The names are below.
Every Name On The List
The table below lists all 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MPC | $108.8 Bil | 1.5% | 2.2% | 17.8% | 110.8% |
| VLO | $105.0 Bil | 1.7% | 1.0% | 13.5% | 138.7% |
| PSX | $98.1 Bil | 1.8% | 0.5% | 16.5% | 89.4% |
| EXPD | $25.5 Bil | 0.1% | 1.7% | 14.3% | 57.7% |
| GEN | $18.71 Bil | 1.7% | 7.2% | 14.2% | 2.9% |
| SJM | $14.12 Bil | 0.4% | 6.5% | 9.3% | 30.4% |
The energy names pair their price strength with business growth.
The three large energy companies making new highs have strong business fundamentals supporting their price gains. Marathon Petroleum (MPC) saw its revenue grow 15.0% over the last twelve months with an operating margin of 7.5%. Valero Energy (VLO) grew revenue 12.6% with a 7.2% operating margin. Phillips 66 (PSX) posted revenue growth of 14.4% over the last twelve months.
Another name on the list, Gen Digital (GEN), shows a different profile entirely. Its revenue grew 20.2% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin is 42.8%.
A new high is a starting point for new questions.
A 52-week high list shows what is working. Strength often persists, and these are names the market is rewarding right now. But a high is a price, not a verdict on the business itself.
The disciplined move is to treat this list not as a finish line, but as a signal to check the work. The key question is always whether the underlying business fundamentals, like revenue growth and margins, can support the stock’s 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.
One more pattern worth noticing: 3 of the 6 names are Energy stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, an energy ETF like XLE, 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.
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.