5 NYSE Stocks Hitting 52-Week Highs Thursday

The markets stumbled on Thursday, pulling back from their gains of earlier in the week following a decline in oil prices and anxiety ahead of multiple central bank meetings. However, several stocks soared to their new 52-week highs during the trading hours, including American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH), American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP), and Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ).

Investors should pay attention to stocks hitting their 52-week highs as the achievement indicates that the stock has momentum on its side as it plunges through resistance levels and technical barriers. Let’s check out the details of this activity in the aforementioned stocks and see what hedge funds think about these stocks.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see more details about our small-cap strategy).

REIT Pushes to 52-Week High

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) hit its 52-week high of $21.27 on Thursday. Analysts at FBR & Co reaffirmed their ‘Outperform’ rating for the California-based real estate company and raised their price target on the stock to $22 from $20, in a report issued to investors on Thursday. Shares of the residential REIT have marched upward by 27% year-to-date. The company pays a relatively meager dividend for an REIT, amounting to an annual yield of 0.95%. Out of 766 active funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 17 hedge funds were long American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) at the end of the first quarter.

Another REIT Plows Through Its 52-Week High

American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT) is another REIT that reached its 52-week high on Thursday. The stock has forged even higher this morning, touching an all-time high of $118.26 and shares are up by over 21% year-to-date. Analysts at Morgan Stanley reiterated their ‘Overweight’ rating for the company and $125 price target on it earlier this week. The REIT pays a more robust dividend than its aforementioned peer, with the annual yield on its payments coming in at 1.80%. As of the end of March, 40 hedge funds in our system held stakes in American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT).

On the next page we’ll discuss the 52-week highs achieved by Caterpillar, CenterPoint Energy and Domino’s Pizza.

Caterpillar Crawls to 52-Week High

Shares of Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) soared to their 52-week high of $81.38 on Thursday. The construction and mining equipment company has been facing the repercussions of falling commodity prices for months, and has yet to experience the benefits of its acquisition of Bucyrus. Its biggest competitor, Japan-based Komatsu Ltd, recently announced the acquisition of Joy Global Inc. (NYSE:JOY) for $2.89 billion, which will stiffen the competition for Caterpillar even further. The company is set to announce its second quarter results on July 26. A total of 37 hedge funds that we track were long Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) at the end of the first quarter, up from 31 funds a quarter earlier.

Rising Commodity Prices Help CenterPoint Energy to Yearly High

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) touched its 52-week peak stock price of $24.27 on Thursday and has cruised even higher today, cresting $24.64. With its high exposure to commodity prices, CenterPoint Energy underperformed its peers in 2015, but has likewise outperformed said peers in 2016, gaining 34% as commodity prices have rebounded. Out of the investors in our database, 27 hedge funds were bullish on CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) at the end of the first quarter, owning $578 worth of the company’s shares in aggregate.

Strong Quarterly Results Bake a 52-Week High for Domino’s

Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ)’s stock reached its 52-week on Thursday after the company posted better than expected second quarter results. The pizza restaurant chain earned $0.98 per share, above analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.94. Revenue for the quarter was $547.34 million, also topping analysts’ consensus mark of $533.44 million. Shares have gained another 2% in trading today, pushing their 52-week high to $148.35. Shares have gained 33% this year. At the end of March, 32 hedge funds in our system owned shares of Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ), significantly up from just 20 hedge funds a quarter earlier.

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