The 52-Week-High List: 15 Mid Cap Names On Wednesday
A small list of mid-cap names is trading at yearly highs, with a notable concentration in a single part of the market.
On Wednesday, 15 Mid Cap US and Canada-listed stocks with a market value above $10 billion are trading at their 52-week highs. The largest of these is Biogen (BIIB), which has gained 6.8% over the last month while the S&P 500 returned -0.8%.
The list shows a clear concentration, with Health Care (6 names) and Energy (3 names) leading the count. The central question for any name at its strongest price of the year is whether the business fundamentals can support the new level. A look at the largest names on today’s list shows two very different stories.
The Biggest Names On The List
The table below shows the 10 largest of the 15 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BIIB | $32.89 Bil | 3.1% | 0.7% | 6.8% | 59.5% |
| HPQ | $29.49 Bil | 2.1% | 4.8% | 11.0% | 16.2% |
| CF | $21.39 Bil | 2.7% | 10.8% | 18.5% | 62.6% |
| DINO | $19.03 Bil | 2.0% | 9.9% | 20.9% | 110.3% |
| OVV | $18.73 Bil | 0.5% | 3.7% | 10.1% | 60.5% |
| CNH | $16.9 Bil | 9.2% | 17.5% | 21.7% | 23.1% |
| RGA | $16.4 Bil | 1.9% | 2.4% | 7.3% | 31.9% |
| SOLV | $15.87 Bil | 1.0% | 0.4% | 4.5% | 28.0% |
| APA | $15.78 Bil | 0.9% | 8.5% | 24.8% | 94.0% |
| EXEL | $14.68 Bil | 2.9% | 4.3% | 4.5% | 57.4% |
A new high can mean very different things for the underlying business.
Consider CF Industries (CF), which has gained 18.5% over the last month. Over the last twelve months, its revenue grew 20.0% and it posted an operating margin of 39.3%, trading at 10.2 times trailing earnings. Contrast that with Biogen, the largest company on the list. It trades at 39.4 times trailing earnings (on trailing earnings that include at least one loss quarter, so the multiple is not comparable to a clean-year multiple). Its revenue grew just 0.3% over the last twelve months, with an operating margin of 19.3%.
A high price is a starting point for questions, not an answer.
A 52-week-high list is a useful screen for strength. Stocks that are working often continue to work. But a price is not a verdict on a company, and a new high is no guarantee of future gains. The disciplined move is always the same: use the high price as a signal to check the work. A stock at its peak invites the question of whether the business itself is earning that valuation.
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.