20 S&P 500 Stocks Just Touched 52-Week Lows
A list of market laggards holds a few names with surprisingly resilient fundamentals.
T-Mobile US, a company with a market value of about $175.7 billion, has seen its stock decline 10.8% over the last month. As of Tuesday, September 22, there are 20 S&P 500 stocks trading at their 52-week lows. This weakness comes as the S&P 500 itself has returned +1.3% over the last month.
The divergence raises a core question for any name on a low list: is the business damaged, or is the stock simply marked down?
Tuesday’s Full 52-Week-Low List
Here are all 20 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TMUS | $175.7 Bil | -1.7% | -10.0% | -10.8% | -30.4% |
| RCL | $63.0 Bil | -6.1% | -5.2% | -19.1% | -26.9% |
| AON | $61.0 Bil | -1.6% | -6.1% | -19.4% | -17.8% |
| SRE | $53.0 Bil | -0.3% | -0.3% | -2.3% | 0.1% |
| LHX | $44.7 Bil | -2.9% | -3.9% | -9.6% | -14.1% |
| PEG | $34.4 Bil | -0.3% | -1.8% | -3.9% | -12.4% |
| CCI | $31.3 Bil | -1.2% | -1.2% | -2.8% | -18.7% |
| PCG | $28.4 Bil | -0.5% | -2.1% | -26.8% | -12.7% |
| ATO | $26.5 Bil | -0.6% | -2.9% | -5.1% | -1.2% |
| LVS | $26.0 Bil | -1.4% | -3.8% | -15.6% | -24.7% |
| FISV | $24.6 Bil | -0.8% | -7.8% | -12.3% | -65.0% |
| NRG | $21.7 Bil | -0.5% | -3.1% | -9.2% | -36.7% |
| FICO | $20.7 Bil | -1.1% | -7.2% | -22.0% | -38.1% |
| STZ | $20.4 Bil | -0.7% | -4.9% | -13.3% | -8.9% |
| CMS | $19.9 Bil | -0.7% | -2.5% | -5.9% | -5.5% |
| NI | $19.1 Bil | -1.6% | -1.7% | -1.8% | 1.6% |
| FIS | $18.0 Bil | -0.7% | -6.4% | -14.5% | -44.3% |
| CHTR | $14.1 Bil | -4.9% | -17.0% | -21.9% | -55.3% |
| TXT | $13.5 Bil | -1.9% | -3.5% | -6.1% | -6.8% |
| PNR | $8.9 Bil | -0.5% | -1.9% | -13.8% | -49.1% |
Is a growing business hiding on this list?
Some names hitting new lows are still expanding. T-Mobile US (TMUS) trades at 16.6 times trailing earnings, and its revenue grew 9.7% over the last twelve months, and its free cash flow yield is 9.2%. Aon (AON), the third-largest company on the list, trades at 15.6 times trailing earnings, and its revenue grew 4.9% over the last twelve months, and its free cash flow yield is 5.3%.
So how should an investor read this list?
A 52-week-low list is not an automatic buy signal. It is a starting point for research. A low can mark a truly broken business, or it can mark a solid one that has fallen out of favor. The disciplined move is to investigate the company’s fundamentals before making a judgment on its price.
If any of these names tempt you, resist buying on price alone. Our Buy the Dip screen asks the follow-up question that matters: which marked-down stocks still have the growth and cash generation to recover.
Catching Falling Prices Is A Skill. Not Needing To Is A Strategy
Buying stocks at 52-week lows works brilliantly on the survivors and painfully on the rest, and nobody rings a bell to tell you which is which. The honest answer for most investors is to stop needing that call.
The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio holds roughly 30 businesses selected for the traits that make recoveries likely in the first place: consistent cash generation, strong margins, resilient balance sheets. It has a track record of outpacing a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400, and the Russell 2000. Watch the low list for information; let a disciplined basket do the buying.