Many mega-cap stocks have started 2025 with a bang and we’ll be taking a closer look into each of them to learn why they’ve performed so well already.
If you skim the trends in the past two years, it should be clear that it’s worthwhile to look into mega-cap stocks that have gained a lot already. Investors who defied the conventional wisdom and doubled down on the mega-cap stocks last year have outperformed the benchmark index by a wide margin.
We used a stock screener and sorted public companies — those tagged by the screener as trading in the U.S. — with a market capitalization above $100 billion by their year-to-date (YTD) gains.
Will lightning strike again this year and take these stocks even higher by the end of 2025? It’s not rational to paint all these companies with the same brush, so let’s dive into the nitty gritty of each mega-cap stock in this list.
A close-up view of a computer motherboard with integrated semiconductor chips.
1. Micron Technology (MU)
- YTD Total Return: 16.15%
It shouldn’t be a big surprise that the first stock in this list is a semiconductor company. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) makes memory and storage semiconductors. MU stock is mostly on this list because of a recovery.
This stock has been trading around the $100 (±$15) level since October 2024. It started declining in mid-December and ended the year at $84.16. That’s because management’s fiscal second-quarter forecast fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.
However, expectations improved markedly around AI spending and the long-term potential of Micron Technology (MU) here. Analysts point to the company’s investments in cutting-edge DRAM and NAND solutions as reasons that MU stock quickly recaptured ground in early 2025. In other words, while Micron’s near-term performance faced headwinds from consumer electronics softness and a mismatch in memory chip supply and demand, the bigger AI-driven picture appears to have injected fresh confidence. The result is a share price that consolidated in the $90 to $105 corridor through January.
2. Arm Holdings (ARM)
- YTD Total Return: 13.11%
Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM) is another semiconductor company; not much of a surprise. Semiconductor firms dominated the charts last year as well. ARM stock has doubled its stock price in just the past year. This is mostly because they’ve had very strong quarter-over-quarter growth and bullish revenue forecasts.
Arm Holdings (ARM) has also pivoted into high-value areas like AI and data centers, and these have made it into a hot mega-cap performer this year. The licensing business has bought in robust royalty stream and Wall Street is bullish that Arm can continue double-digit growth over the coming quarters.
For the full fiscal year 2025 (ending March 31, 2025), Arm Holdings (ARM) reaffirmed revenue guidance of $3.8 billion to $4.1 billion, with adjusted EPS projected between $1.45 and $1.65. The company guided for some sequential moderation in certain quarters — particularly for licensing revenue — Wall Street largely interprets the annual view as a sign of at least 20% top-line growth for the year. Some sell-side estimates see Arm maintaining a 20%+ annual revenue growth rate well into fiscal 2026 and 2027.
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