The 52-Week-High List: 3 Large Cap Names On Wednesday
A very short list of new highs shows a notable concentration in one part of the market.
As of Wednesday, September 16, there are 3 Large Cap US and Canada-listed stocks in the Trefis coverage universe trading at their 52-week highs. The largest company on this brief list is Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO), with a market value of about $240.6 billion.
The list is small, but two of the three names belong to the Energy sector. Both have posted strong one-month gains while the S&P 500 has returned -2.4% over the last month. This raises a direct question: are these valuations justified by the underlying business performance?
Every Name On The List
The table below lists all 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TMO | $240.57 Bil | 1.1% | 7.1% | 10.8% | 37.1% |
| MPC | $119.62 Bil | 0.7% | 3.6% | 15.9% | 133.9% |
| VLO | $118.56 Bil | 1.6% | 3.7% | 16.2% | 161.4% |
This screen covers US and Canada-listed stocks in the Trefis coverage universe. Large Cap here means a market value above $40 billion.
Are these runs backed by business growth?
The two Energy names show significant revenue expansion over the last year. Marathon Petroleum (MPC), which gained 15.9% over the last month, trades at 14.0 times trailing earnings. Its revenue grew 15.0% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin was 7.5%.
Valero Energy (VLO) had the strongest one-month run on the list, up 16.2%. It trades at 16.4 times trailing earnings, and its revenue grew 12.6% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin was 7.2%. By contrast, Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) trades at a higher multiple of 34.5 times trailing earnings, while its revenue grew 7.2% over the last twelve months with an operating margin of 18.3%.
So is a new high a buy signal?
Strength can persist, and a stock at its highest price of the year is clearly working for investors. But a high price is a data point, not a verdict on the business itself. The disciplined next step is always the same: to look past the price and determine if the company’s growth and margins truly earn the new level.
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.
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 S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400, and the Russell 2000. Use the high list for ideas; use the portfolio for the compounding.