Where The Selling Ran Deepest: 10 S&P 500 Stocks At 52-Week Lows
A major retailer’s appearance on the new-lows list raises questions about price versus business health.
TJX Companies, with a market value of about $148.1 billion, is the largest name on today’s 52-week-low list. It is one of 10 S&P 500 stocks at its weakest price of the past year, a period where the S&P 500 itself returned +2.7% over the last month. The steepest one-month slide belongs to PG&E, down 23.6%.
This divergence raises a critical question for any investor scanning the names below: what separates a temporarily marked-down business from one with genuine damage?
The Complete 52-Week-Low List
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- How Will Samsara Stock React To Its Upcoming Earnings?
- Heico Stock Extends A 7-Day Losing Streak To An 8.4% Loss
- How Will Zscaler Stock React To Its Upcoming Earnings?
- 9 Red Days In A Row: BridgeBio Pharma Stock Is Down 8.8%
Here are all 10 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TJX | $148.1 Bil | -0.9% | -4.8% | -14.6% | -1.1% |
| MLM | $31.2 Bil | -2.5% | -2.9% | -1.4% | -15.0% |
| PCG | $29.2 Bil | -20.1% | -26.7% | -23.6% | -10.5% |
| LVS | $28.7 Bil | -2.7% | -6.7% | -9.8% | -22.4% |
| VICI | $27.4 Bil | -0.9% | -4.2% | -2.7% | -18.5% |
| NRG | $22.8 Bil | -0.9% | -1.5% | -17.7% | -25.0% |
| LII | $13.3 Bil | -2.7% | -4.1% | -8.0% | -30.9% |
| PNR | $9.8 Bil | -2.0% | -4.5% | -7.6% | -43.9% |
| APTV | $9.5 Bil | -2.2% | -5.4% | -20.7% | -44.3% |
| WYNN | $9.4 Bil | -4.2% | -8.2% | -7.9% | -27.3% |
Does a new low always signal fundamental decay?
Not always. Consider Martin Marietta Materials (MLM), whose revenue grew 14.8% over the last twelve months. Or look at Las Vegas Sands (LVS), where revenue grew 18.1% over the last twelve months. LVS also shows a free cash flow yield of 9.4%. These are not figures that suggest a business in retreat, even as their stock prices touch new lows.
A low price is a starting point, not a conclusion.
A list of stocks at 52-week lows is a screen for dislocation, nothing more. It finds companies whose market prices have weakened, but it cannot tell you why. The disciplined next step is to investigate the underlying business fundamentals before reacting to the price action alone. A low can mark real trouble or a potential opportunity, and only the numbers can help tell them apart.
A 52-week-low list tells you where the pain is; it does not tell you which of these declines are worth buying. That second question is what our Buy the Dip screen answers, every day: beaten-down names where the fundamentals still hold up.
Notice how many of these names sit in one corner of the market: 4 of the 10 are Consumer Discretionary stocks. When a whole group is marked down together, a consumer discretionary ETF like XLY is one way to own an eventual recovery without betting on which single name survives it best.
The Low List Is A Symptom. Own The Discipline Instead
Stocks land on this list for different reasons, and the businesses behind them are in very different shape; what they share is that the market’s verdict arrived faster than any of them could answer it. Some will answer it in time and some will not, and telling them apart name by name is unforgiving work.
That work is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio systematizes: about 30 quality businesses screened for the cash flow and balance-sheet strength that let a company fight through a bad year, sized and rebalanced by 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. Read the list; own the discipline.