The 52-Week-High List: 2 Mid Cap Names On Thursday
A short list of technology names at new highs raises a question about the price of growth.
The Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals and Semiconductors industries each placed one name on Thursday’s list. In total, 2 Mid Cap US and Canada-listed stocks with a market value above $10 billion are trading at their 52-week highs. The largest is HP (HPQ), with a market value of about $30.2 billion.
Both names belong to the Information Technology sector, but they arrive at their highs on very different terms. The central question is what kind of business earns its new, higher price. The list of names follows.
Every Name On The List
The table below lists all 2 names this screen surfaced, largest first, with one-day, one-week, one-month, and one-year returns:
| Tickers | Market Cap |
1D % Chg |
1W % Chg |
1M % Chg |
1Y % Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HPQ | $30.18 Bil | 1.0% | 3.3% | 13.7% | 19.6% |
| SWKS | $12.64 Bil | 9.8% | 17.2% | 23.0% | 15.6% |
One high is built on a faster run and a much higher multiple.
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) has gained 23.0% over the last month. The stock now trades at 43.6 times trailing earnings, while its revenue grew just 0.1% over the last twelve months. Its operating margin is 8.7%.
By contrast, HP (HPQ) gained 13.7% over the last month. It trades at 12.3 times trailing earnings. Over the last twelve months, HP’s revenue grew 8.1% and its operating margin is 6.6%.
A new high invites a new look at the business.
A 52-week-high list is a simple screen for strength. Stocks that are working often continue to work. But a high is a price, not a verdict on the company. The disciplined move is to treat the new price as a prompt to check the underlying fundamentals. The work is to ask whether the business itself earns the level the market has set.
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.
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 three major indices – the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000. Use the high list for ideas; use the portfolio for the compounding.