S&P 500 Stocks At 52-Week Highs: Monday’s Full List

A small group of stocks reaches new highs, with a heavy concentration in a single part of the economy.

The S&P 500 has returned -0.5% over the last month, yet some names are finding clear air. As of Monday, September 28, there are 8 S&P 500 stocks trading at their 52-week highs.

The list is dominated by a single theme. The Health Care sector accounts for 7 of the names, including the largest company on the list, AbbVie (ABBV), with a market value of about $471.0 billion. What does such a tight cluster of strength mean for the market?

Monday's Full 52-Week-High List

Here are all 8 names, sorted by market capitalization, with returns over four windows:

A new high does not always mean a growing business.

The price level alone can be misleading. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is at its highest price of the year, but its revenue declined 6.1% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin was 6.1%.

At the other extreme is Waters (WAT). Its revenue grew 52.5% over the last twelve months, and its operating margin was 8.2%. The stock trades at 261.8 times trailing earnings, a figure that includes at least one loss quarter, so the multiple is not comparable to a clean-year multiple.

Strength is a signal, not a conclusion.

A list of stocks at their yearly highs is a good place to start looking for ideas. Strength often persists, and these are companies the market is rewarding for one reason or another.

But a 52-week high is a price, not a verdict on the business itself. The disciplined next step is to look past the price and ask whether the underlying fundamentals, from revenue growth to margins, earn the current valuation.

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: 7 of the 8 names are Health Care stocks. When a whole group is making new highs together, a health care ETF like XLV, which holds 6 of these names, is one way to own part of the group's strength without betting on which single name leads it from here.

Chasing Highs Is A Reflex. Owning Strength Is A System

A 52-week-high list is seductive: everything on it has been going right. But buying a stock because it is at its high is buying a price, and prices revert; what persists is the quality underneath the run.

The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio is built to own that quality before and after it makes headlines: roughly 30 businesses selected for consistent cash generation, strong margins, and resilient balance sheets, sized and rebalanced with 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. Admire the list; own the system.