The 52-Week-High List: 19 Mid Cap Names On Friday
A concentrated list of market leaders raises questions about price versus performance.
As of Friday, August 21, 19 Mid Cap US and Canada-listed stocks with a market value above $10 billion are at 52-week highs. The list is overwhelmingly concentrated in one area of the market: by sector, the 19 names break down as Health Care (13 names). The largest company making a new high, DexCom (DXCM), fits this pattern, having gained 31.0% over the last month.
The question for any list this narrow is whether the strength is uniform, or if certain names stand apart from the trend. Below are the 10 largest names on the screen.
The Ten Largest At New Highs
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The table below shows the 10 largest of the 19 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DXCM | $35.56 Bil | 2.3% | 2.9% | 31.0% | 13.1% |
| ILMN | $33.57 Bil | 2.9% | 14.9% | 11.4% | 117.7% |
| LH | $27.68 Bil | 1.1% | 5.7% | 15.6% | 22.2% |
| DGX | $27.13 Bil | 1.3% | 4.3% | 7.2% | 34.9% |
| THC | $24.37 Bil | 3.0% | 4.8% | 41.1% | 54.3% |
| MGA | $20.32 Bil | 3.8% | 4.0% | 11.9% | 70.3% |
| OVV | $18.71 Bil | 0.2% | 6.0% | 8.8% | 75.6% |
| DINO | $17.58 Bil | 5.0% | 3.9% | 9.9% | 118.0% |
| MEDP | $17.49 Bil | 1.3% | 7.3% | 2.5% | 33.3% |
| SOLV | $15.6 Bil | 1.1% | 1.1% | 16.0% | 23.0% |
A violent run has not produced a stretched valuation.
The strongest one-month run on the list belongs to Tenet Healthcare (THC), up 41.1%. Yet that price appreciation has not led to the kind of multiple seen elsewhere. The stock trades at 10.5 times trailing earnings. Over the last twelve months, its revenue grew 9.4% and its operating margin is 19.5%, suggesting a business with substance behind the recent price action.
A new high is a question, not an answer.
A list of stocks at their strongest price of the year is a good map of what is working in the market. Strength often persists. But a 52-week high is a price, not a verdict on the underlying business. The disciplined move is always the same: to use the new high as a starting point. The work is to check whether the company’s fundamentals can earn the new level the market has granted it.
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, which is the momentum that tends to have staying power.
One more pattern worth noticing: 13 of the 19 names are Health Care stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a U.S. healthcare providers ETF like IHF is one way to own 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 the difference between a run that lasts and one that tops is always 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 three major indices – the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000. Let the highs point; let the discipline decide.