7 S&P 500 Stocks Just Touched 52-Week Lows
A small list of yearly lows is dominated by one part of the market, raising questions about price versus performance.
On Wednesday, September 2, just 7 S&P 500 stocks hit a 52-week low, but the list is heavily weighted toward one area of the market. The Industrials sector accounts for 5 of the names, while the largest company present, TJX Companies (TJX), also saw the steepest decline.
The stock has fallen 16.4% over the last month. This raises a central question for investors scanning these names: what does it mean when a stock price hits a yearly bottom while the underlying business is still growing? The full list of names follows.
Wednesday’s Full 52-Week-Low List
- The 52-Week-High List: 18 S&P 500 Names On Wednesday
- 26 Small Cap Stocks Just Made New 52-Week Highs
- 14 Large Cap Stocks Just Made New 52-Week Highs
- Stocks At 52-Week Lows: Wednesday’s Full List
- Heico Stock Extends An 8-Day Losing Streak To A 9.1% Loss
- The 52-Week-High List: 15 Mid Cap Names On Wednesday
Here are all 7 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TJX | $145.2 Bil | -1.5% | -4.0% | -16.4% | -4.1% |
| LOW | $111.7 Bil | -0.1% | -5.0% | -8.4% | -21.2% |
| LHX | $48.7 Bil | -0.9% | -0.6% | -8.4% | -3.5% |
| ROL | $17.2 Bil | -1.3% | -2.7% | -5.1% | -36.1% |
| TXT | $13.7 Bil | -0.6% | -4.9% | -11.1% | -0.3% |
| LII | $13.0 Bil | -0.9% | -5.0% | -16.3% | -30.5% |
| PNR | $9.6 Bil | -1.0% | -4.8% | -12.6% | -43.0% |
Are these businesses as weak as their stock prices?
The two largest companies on the list, both from the Consumer Discretionary sector, show a disconnect between their recent stock slide and their longer-term results. TJX Companies (TJX), with a market value of about $145.2 billion, trades at 23.9 times trailing earnings while its revenue grew 7.7% over the last twelve months.
Similarly, Lowe’s Companies (LOW) saw its stock decline 8.4% over the last month. Yet over the last twelve months, its revenue grew 8.2%, and the company trades at 16.8 times trailing earnings.
So is a 52-week low a red flag or a green one?
A stock at its weakest price of the year is not, by itself, a verdict. The price may reflect genuine damage to a company’s operations, or it may simply reflect a solid business that has fallen out of market favor. A 52-week-low list is a tool for discovery, not a simple buy or sell signal. The disciplined move is to check the business before reacting to the price.
If any of these names tempt you, resist buying a price alone. Our Buy the Dip screen asks the follow-up question that matters: which marked-down stocks still have the growth and cash generation to recover.
Notice how many of these names sit in one corner of the market: 5 of the 7 are Industrials stocks. When a whole group is marked down together, an aerospace & defense ETF like MISL is one way to own an eventual recovery without betting on which single name survives it best.
Catching Falling Prices Is A Skill. Not Needing To Is A Strategy
Buying stocks at 52-week lows works brilliantly on the survivors and painfully on the rest, and nobody rings a bell to tell you which is which. The honest answer for most investors is to stop needing that call.
The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio holds roughly 30 businesses selected for the traits that make recoveries likely in the first place: consistent cash generation, strong margins, resilient balance sheets. 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. Watch the low list for information; let a disciplined basket do the buying.