17 S&P 500 Stocks Just Made New 52-Week Highs
As of Thursday, October 15, there are 17 S&P 500 stocks trading at their 52-week highs.
Visa (V), with a market value of about $751.8 billion, is the largest company on the list; its stock is up 7.8% over the past month and up 15.7% over the past year. Health Care contributed the most names, 9 of the 17. For context, the S&P 500 is up 2.6% over the past month, including dividends.
The Biggest Names On The List
The table below shows the 10 largest of the 17 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D Return |
1W Return |
1M Return |
1Y Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V | $751.8 Bil | 2.1% | 6.6% | 7.8% | 15.7% |
| MA | $543.6 Bil | 2.2% | 7.4% | 8.7% | 9.2% |
| ABBV | $501.3 Bil | 0.6% | 4.7% | 8.6% | 28.3% |
| KO | $395.9 Bil | 0.2% | 4.8% | 4.7% | 39.9% |
| GILD | $195.6 Bil | 2.5% | 7.0% | 6.6% | 36.1% |
| PFE | $167.8 Bil | 0.8% | 5.8% | 7.2% | 28.5% |
| MO | $123.3 Bil | 1.0% | 3.4% | 5.3% | 20.5% |
| MCK | $118.5 Bil | 2.3% | 7.4% | 12.5% | 28.2% |
| ADP | $113.9 Bil | 1.9% | 5.5% | 4.6% | 2.8% |
| CAH | $59.1 Bil | 2.4% | 6.2% | 9.4% | 66.1% |
What Sits Behind The Biggest New Highs?
Visa (V) trades at 33.3 times trailing earnings, grew revenue 14.4% over the last twelve months and earned an operating margin of 65.6%.
Mastercard (MA) trades at 33.4 times trailing earnings, grew revenue 16.0% over the last twelve months and earned an operating margin of 59.8%.
Across the list, one-month moves range from +4.6% for Automatic Data Processing (ADP) to +18.9% for Mettler-Toledo International (MTD).
The median stock on the list is up 28.5% over the past year.
A new high tells you what the market already believes. The harder question is which of these runs management itself is underwriting. Our Guidance Momentum screen tracks exactly that: stocks where the company raised its own forward numbers.
One more pattern worth noticing: 9 of the 17 names are Health Care stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a health care ETF like XLV, which holds 6 of the 6 largest of them, 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.