Where The Selling Ran Deepest: 21 S&P 500 Stocks At 52-Week Lows
A new list of market lows features several large, familiar consumer companies.
Construction Materials, an industry in the Materials sector, placed three names on today’s 52-week-low list. As of Wednesday, September 16, there are 21 S&P 500 stocks trading at their 52-week lows. The largest is McDonald’s (MCD), with a market value of about $176.3 billion. The S&P 500 has returned -2.4% over the last month.
With several large consumer names hitting new lows, the question is whether the business has weakened with the stock price.
The Complete 52-Week-Low List
Here are all 21 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCD | $176.3 Bil | -1.7% | -1.9% | -5.7% | -15.6% |
| TJX | $135.9 Bil | -1.4% | -2.6% | -18.6% | -11.9% |
| LOW | $108.5 Bil | -0.3% | -2.3% | -10.1% | -27.2% |
| AON | $64.1 Bil | -1.3% | -1.4% | -13.4% | -16.6% |
| TDG | $62.0 Bil | -0.5% | -4.0% | -12.7% | -16.1% |
| CRH | $57.8 Bil | -1.1% | -3.0% | -9.7% | -22.3% |
| NKE | $53.0 Bil | -1.2% | -4.2% | -7.5% | -49.4% |
| AZO | $46.9 Bil | -0.4% | -2.1% | -5.6% | -32.7% |
| FERG | $41.5 Bil | -0.4% | -4.0% | -12.2% | 1.8% |
| PEG | $35.1 Bil | -0.0% | -3.0% | -6.1% | -12.3% |
| VMC | $31.7 Bil | -2.0% | -2.2% | -12.2% | -16.3% |
| MLM | $29.9 Bil | -2.0% | -1.2% | -7.6% | -18.3% |
| LVS | $26.9 Bil | -0.5% | -5.2% | -9.6% | -21.0% |
| VICI | $26.2 Bil | -2.8% | -4.5% | -7.3% | -22.5% |
| FIS | $19.0 Bil | -1.3% | -2.1% | -9.5% | -42.8% |
| ROL | $16.1 Bil | -0.7% | -2.9% | -6.9% | -39.7% |
| LII | $12.5 Bil | -0.3% | -3.9% | -13.2% | -33.9% |
| LULU | $11.1 Bil | -2.4% | -3.8% | -17.1% | -40.0% |
| CLX | $10.3 Bil | -2.6% | -5.3% | -19.9% | -27.7% |
| APTV | $9.2 Bil | -0.9% | -2.6% | -13.4% | -47.7% |
| WYNN | $8.6 Bil | -2.9% | -6.7% | -18.1% | -30.8% |
Are these businesses growing while their stocks are falling?
The list includes companies whose fundamentals show a different picture than their recent stock performance. TJX Companies (TJX), the second-largest name on the list, trades at 22.4 times trailing earnings, and its revenue grew 7.7% over the last twelve months, and its free cash flow yield is 4.3%.
Similarly, Lowe’s Companies (LOW) trades at 16.3 times trailing earnings, and its revenue grew 8.2% over the last twelve months, and its free cash flow yield is 6.5%.
A low price is a starting point, not a conclusion.
A stock at its weakest price in a year can signal two very different things. It might point to genuine fundamental damage in a business. Or, it can mark a solid company whose shares are simply priced lower than they were. The disciplined work for an investor is to check the business first, before making any judgment from the price alone.
A 52-week-low list tells you where the pain is; it does not tell you which of these declines are worth buying. That second question is what our Buy the Dip screen answers, every day: beaten-down names where the fundamentals still hold up.
Notice how many of these names sit in one corner of the market: 9 of the 21 are Consumer Discretionary stocks. When a whole group is marked down together, a consumer discretionary ETF like XLY is one way to own an eventual recovery without betting on which single name survives it best.
Weakness Is Information. It Is Not An Instruction
A 52-week low tells you what the market thinks today. It does not tell you what to do, and acting on price alone is how value traps get bought. The missing ingredient is always the same: is the business still sound?
Asking that question across thousands of stocks, every day, is exactly how the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio is built: roughly 30 names that pass the quality screens, held with rules instead of nerve. It has a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400, and the Russell 2000. Let the low list sharpen your watchlist, and let the portfolio carry the risk.