The 52-Week-High List: 6 Large Cap Names On Wednesday
A short list of companies at their highest price of the year is dominated by a single industry group showing very different financial profiles.
As of Wednesday, September 23, there are 6 Large Cap US and Canada-listed stocks in the Trefis coverage universe trading at their 52-week highs. The largest company on the list is CrowdStrike (CRWD), which has gained 37.7% over the last month, a period where the S&P 500 returned +0.8%.
With 4 of the 6 names coming from the Information Technology sector, the list is narrow. This raises the question of whether the underlying business stories are as uniform as the industry concentration suggests.
Wednesday’s Full 52-Week-High List
The table below lists all 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRWD | $266.41 Bil | 5.0% | 8.8% | 37.7% | 112.9% |
| TMO | $246.83 Bil | 1.0% | 2.6% | 5.9% | 40.6% |
| DE | $191.63 Bil | 0.9% | 6.0% | 9.4% | 53.2% |
| FTNT | $131.03 Bil | 2.6% | 4.1% | 17.6% | 110.3% |
| HPE | $83.21 Bil | 2.1% | 10.2% | 19.2% | 152.2% |
| TWLO | $44.41 Bil | 2.2% | 21.7% | 30.6% | 176.4% |
This screen covers US and Canada-listed stocks in the Trefis coverage universe. Large Cap here means a market value above $40 billion.
Does the price reflect the same kind of growth?
Two of the technology names tell different stories. Fortinet (FTNT) trades at 61.8 times trailing earnings, and its revenue grew 18.8% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin was 32.4%.
In contrast, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) trades at 29.8 times trailing earnings, and its revenue grew 26.6% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin was 7.8%. One company shows a higher margin, while the other shows faster recent revenue growth at a lower multiple.
A new high is a question, not an answer.
A list of stocks at their highest price of the year is a useful screen for strength. Strong price action can persist. But a price is not a verdict on a business, and a high is not a signal to buy without discipline.
The disciplined next step is to do what the numbers above begin to do: check whether the business fundamentals appear to earn the current valuation. A high price invites a hard look at the business underneath.
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.
One more pattern worth noticing: 4 of the 6 names are Information Technology stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a technology ETF like XLK, which holds 3 of these names, 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.