Where The Buying Ran Strongest: 4 Mid Cap Stocks At 52-Week Highs
A short list of new highs shows a market rewarding very different kinds of businesses.
As of Tuesday, September 8, 4 Mid Cap US and Canada-listed stocks with a market value above $10 billion are trading at their 52-week highs. This small group emerged while the S&P 500 returned -0.9% over the last month, and it shows no clear industry pattern: one name each from the Materials, Health Care, Energy, and Utilities sectors.
The largest company on the list is Teck Resources (TECK), with a market value of about $35.3 billion. The question is what these disparate names have in common, if anything. Below is the full list.
Tuesday’s Full 52-Week-High List
Here are all 4 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TECK | $35.27 Bil | 4.2% | 5.7% | 8.3% | 111.3% |
| ROIV | $29.9 Bil | 18.8% | 19.7% | 14.1% | 221.1% |
| DINO | $19.43 Bil | 2.8% | 6.6% | 33.9% | 118.9% |
| WTRG | $11.9 Bil | 0.6% | 1.9% | 5.7% | 10.5% |
Has the price run ahead of the business?
HF Sinclair (DINO) posted the strongest one-month run, up 33.9%. Over the last twelve months, its revenue grew 16.3% and its operating margin is 8.4%. The stock trades at 10.1 times trailing earnings (on trailing earnings that include at least one loss quarter, so the multiple is not comparable to a clean-year multiple).
Contrast that with Roivant Sciences (ROIV), which gained 14.1% over the last month to reach its own high. Yet its revenue declined 67.6% over the last twelve months.
A 52-week high is a starting point for new work.
A stock trading at its highest price of the past year is a sign of strength, and that strength can persist. But a price is not a verdict on the business. The disciplined move is to treat the new high as a prompt to re-evaluate the fundamentals. The essential question is always the same: does the business itself, through its growth and margins, earn this new, higher 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.
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.