Where The Buying Ran Strongest: 12 Small Cap Stocks At 52-Week Highs
A list of small companies at yearly price highs is heavily weighted toward one part of the economy.
Oil & Gas Exploration & Production placed 3 names on today’s list, joined by Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing with 2 names and Oil & Gas Storage & Transportation with 2 names. In total, 12 Small Cap US and Canada-listed stocks with a market value above $2 billion are trading at their 52-week highs. The largest is Qorvo (QRVO), with a market value of about $9.9 billion.
With the S&P 500 returning -1.7% over the last month, the key question is whether these new highs are supported by business expansion or just price extension. The table below shows the 10 largest of these names.
The 10 Largest, By Market Cap
The table below shows the 10 largest of the 12 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QRVO | $9.89 Bil | 6.8% | 11.7% | 16.2% | 22.0% |
| SM | $9.13 Bil | 0.5% | 0.3% | 18.1% | 52.5% |
| PBF | $9.12 Bil | 0.7% | 2.1% | 11.6% | 163.8% |
| CHRD | $8.5 Bil | 1.6% | 1.5% | 10.0% | 54.2% |
| MATX | $6.86 Bil | 0.5% | 4.5% | 11.5% | 122.6% |
| INSW | $5.05 Bil | 2.6% | 6.1% | 20.5% | 155.9% |
| LFST | $4.99 Bil | 3.0% | 0.9% | 13.0% | 137.0% |
| CLMT | $4.94 Bil | 1.3% | 6.4% | 22.6% | 217.6% |
| CVI | $4.88 Bil | 1.8% | 13.2% | 42.7% | 47.6% |
| CRGY | $4.76 Bil | 1.2% | 1.0% | 17.2% | 82.9% |
Business growth separates names on the list.
Consider the contrast between two of the largest companies here. SM Energy (SM) saw its revenue grow 65.9% over the last twelve months, delivering an operating margin of 32.5%. It trades at 9.1 times trailing earnings (on trailing earnings that include at least one loss quarter, so the multiple is not comparable to a clean-year multiple).
In contrast, the list’s largest name, Qorvo, saw its revenue decline 0.2% over the last twelve months. Its operating margin is 15.4%.
A high price is a starting point, not a finish line.
Strength can persist, and a stock at its highest price of the year is a clear signal of market favor. But a price is not a verdict on the underlying business.
The disciplined step is to treat this list not as a set of recommendations, but as a screen for further work. The essential question is always the same: does the business itself earn the valuation the market is now paying for it?
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.
One more pattern worth noticing: 7 of the 12 names are Energy stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, an oil and gas ETF like XOP, which holds 5 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.