The 52-Week-High List: 19 S&P 500 Names On Wednesday
As of Wednesday, October 28, there are 19 S&P 500 stocks trading at their 52-week highs.
At about $261.2 billion in market value, Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) is the largest company on the list; its stock is up 3.6% over the past month and up 25.3% over the past year. Health Care contributed the most names, 12 of the 19. For context, the S&P 500 is up 1.0% over the past month, including dividends.
The Biggest Names On The List
The table below shows the 10 largest of the 19 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D Return |
1W Return |
1M Return |
1Y Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TMO | $261.2 Bil | 1.6% | 1.5% | 3.6% | 25.3% |
| AMGN | $244.0 Bil | 0.9% | 3.1% | 6.7% | 59.5% |
| GILD | $197.9 Bil | 0.1% | 3.7% | 5.2% | 35.4% |
| EMR | $93.7 Bil | 0.9% | 2.8% | 6.7% | 26.7% |
| URI | $73.0 Bil | 1.1% | 9.9% | 15.8% | 31.5% |
| TRGP | $65.6 Bil | 1.1% | 3.5% | 11.9% | 102.9% |
| NDAQ | $59.0 Bil | 1.1% | 9.8% | 14.9% | 20.5% |
| A | $51.2 Bil | 2.2% | 2.1% | 3.8% | 24.7% |
| WAT | $46.8 Bil | 1.8% | 4.2% | 7.6% | 35.6% |
| MTD | $34.2 Bil | 0.8% | 1.2% | 10.5% | 19.6% |
What Sits Behind The Biggest New Highs?
Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) trades at 37.5 times trailing earnings, grew revenue 7.2% over the last twelve months and earned an operating margin of 18.3%.
Amgen (AMGN) trades at 27.9 times trailing earnings, grew revenue 9.1% over the last twelve months and earned an operating margin of 30.0%.
Across the list, one-month moves range from +0.4% for Bio-Techne (TECH) to +34.5% for Hasbro (HAS).
Over the past year, the median name here is up 32.0%.
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: 12 of the 19 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.
Strength Is A Clue. It Is Not A Plan
A stock at its 52-week high has momentum on its side, and momentum is a real force. It is also the most crowded signal in the market, and what separates a run that lasts from one that tops is usually the business underneath.
Checking that business, across thousands of names, is how the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio is assembled: roughly 30 companies that pass the quality screens, rebalanced on rules. 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 highs point; let the discipline decide.