11 Large Cap Stocks Hit 52-Week Highs On Monday
A list of new highs is dominated by technology names, raising questions about price and value.
Systems Software placed 4 names on today’s list of stocks at their highest price of the past year. As of Monday, September 21, there are 11 Large Cap US and Canada-listed stocks in the Trefis coverage universe trading at their 52-week highs. The largest of these is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), with a market value of about $1004.5 billion after a 31.1% gain over the last month.
When a company of that size makes such a sharp move, the central question is whether the business fundamentals support the new price.
The Biggest Names On The List
The table below shows the 10 largest of the 11 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD | $1,004.53 Bil | 9.9% | 24.7% | 31.1% | 289.8% |
| CRWD | $253.07 Bil | 4.9% | 5.9% | 31.0% | 98.4% |
| TMO | $244.4 Bil | 1.1% | 7.4% | 5.1% | 37.4% |
| FTNT | $128.46 Bil | 3.2% | 3.0% | 16.2% | 116.4% |
| NET | $124.61 Bil | 8.7% | 6.5% | 26.1% | 57.3% |
| BNS | $117.28 Bil | 1.4% | 2.1% | 10.3% | 54.1% |
| WBD | $77.34 Bil | 10.8% | 9.6% | 9.1% | 64.7% |
| NTRA | $53.1 Bil | 0.3% | 8.4% | 14.1% | 106.1% |
| TEAM | $49.47 Bil | 1.9% | 1.5% | 11.9% | 15.4% |
| A | $45.67 Bil | 3.5% | 10.3% | 3.6% | 27.9% |
This screen covers US and Canada-listed stocks in the Trefis coverage universe. Large Cap here means a market value above $40 billion.
A trillion-dollar name’s valuation has outrun its growth.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) now trades at 156.1 times trailing earnings. Its revenue grew 39.5% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin was 15.7%. The stock’s one-month gain alone nearly matches its full-year revenue growth rate. For contrast, Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) also reached a new high, but on a much smaller 5.1% one-month gain. TMO trades at 35.1 times trailing earnings, as its revenue grew 7.2% over the last twelve months and its operating margin was 18.3%.
A new high is a question, not an answer.
A list of stocks at their strongest price of the year is a useful screen for strength. But a price is not a verdict on a business. The disciplined next step is always to check the underlying numbers. A new high is simply a prompt to ask whether the company’s growth and profitability can earn the market’s new expectations.
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.
One more pattern worth noticing: 6 of the 11 names are Information Technology stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a technology ETF like XLK, which holds 3 of these names, is one way to own part of the group’s strength without betting on which single name leads it from here.
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.