Ten stocks capped off the trading week with double-digit gains, mirroring optimism in the broader market. Of the number, four notched new record highs.
Meanwhile, Wall Street’s three major indices also finished in the green, led by the Dow Jones, up 0.58 percent, followed by the S&P 500, jumping 0.37 percent, and the Nasdaq, rising 0.19 percent.
In this article, we focus on the 10 top-performing names on Friday and break down the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we considered the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.
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10. Redwire Corp. (NYSE:RDW)
Redwire extended its winning streak to a third consecutive day on Friday, jumping 13.94 percent to finish at $17.49 apiece, after bagging million-dollar contracts with two customers.
In a statement, Redwire Corp. (NYSE:RDW) said that it secured new orders from the US Army Aviation Center of Excellence (AVCOE) and an unnamed member country of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for its Stalker and Penguin UAS to support their aerial defense capabilities.
AVCOE alone boosted its Stalker orders by another $15 million to support its 1st Aviation Brigade. This brought the total order to $24.8 million and marked the third placement so far.
The Stalker UAS is designed with a Modular Open Systems Approach that enables rapid payload swapping and technical upgrades, reduces vendor lock, lowers lifecycle costs, and improves interoperability.
Meanwhile, Redwire Corp. (NYSE:RDW) also inked a “high eight-figure” contract with a NATO country for its Penguin Mk3 UAS as part of the latter’s modernization program of its tactical UAS capabilities.
Developed for rapid deployment, the Penguin Mk3 is a fully automated VTOL UAS that supports multiple mission-specific payloads, including reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition, communications, and other mission-specific payloads within a compact, low-footprint system.
Before the new contracts, Redwire Corp. (NYSE:RDW) announced earlier this month that its order backlog for its customers has totaled $498.1 million, spanning across its multiple UAS products.
9. D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS)
D-Wave extended its winning streak to a third consecutive day on Friday, surging 14.22 percent to close at $29.40 apiece, as investors resumed buying positions after the company earned a $100-million financial backing from the US government to support quantum computing development.
In an announcement on Thursday, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) said that it shelled out more than $2 billion in funding for nine companies to help accelerate US leadership in quantum computing.
D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS) alone secured $100 million in fresh funds from the department, in exchange for its shares worth the said amount, essentially making the DOC an investor.
Proceeds from the funds will be used to accelerate the development of annealing and gate-model quantum systems, including at its forthcoming research and development (R&D) facility in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as its R&D centers in New Haven, Connecticut, and Burnaby, Canada.
“We believe that the US government’s strategic investment in D-Wave would advance the country’s global leadership position in quantum computing,” D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS) CEO Alan Baratz said.
“The award would accelerate D-Wave’s ability to scale quantum innovation domestically, expedite key fabrication processes, and deliver real-world quantum applications to our global customers today. We see this as a transformative moment for not just D-Wave, but also for quantum computing and the United States,” he added.
Apart from D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS), other companies also include Atom Computing, Diraq, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, and Rigetti Computing. The chipmakers, on the other hand, were IBM and GlobalFoundries.
8. HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)
HP Inc. extended its winning streak to a 6th straight session on Friday, jumping 15.25 percent to finish at $25.24 apiece, as investors gobbled up shares ahead of next week’s earnings outcome and the cutoff date to qualify for its next dividend payment.
In a notice to investors, HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) said that it is scheduled to release its financial and operating highlights for the second quarter ending April 30 after market close on Wednesday, May 27. A conference call will be held to elaborate on the results.
For the period, the company is targeting to grow GAAP earnings per share (EPS) by 23.8 percent to 38 percent to a range of $0.52 to $0.58, versus $0.42 posted in the same period last year.
Non-GAAP diluted EPS is expected to be $0.70 to $0.76, marking a 1.4 percent dip or a 7 percent jump from the $0.71 reported in the same comparable period.
The non-GAAP diluted EPS estimates exclude $0.18 per diluted share, primarily related to restructuring and other charges, acquisition and divestiture charges, amortization of intangible assets, non-operating retirement-related credits, tax adjustments, and tax impact related to the said items.
For the full fiscal period, GAAP diluted EPS is targeted at $2.47 to $2.77, while non-GAAP diluted EPS is at $$2.90 to $3.20.
In other news, HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) is set to pay a $0.30 dividend for each common share held by its shareholders on record as of June 10, 2026. Payments will be made on July 1.
7. Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY)
Firefly Aerospace took off by 15.49 percent on Friday to close at $49.50 apiece, amid a broader optimistic sentiment for the space sector, supported by SpaceX’s successful 12th test launch of the Starship rocket.
SpaceX—set to conduct the largest initial public offering in history so far—successfully test-launched the Starship after market hours on Friday. Deemed critical to the further exploration of space, it is being counted on by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to execute its ambitious program of exploring the Moon and Mars.
The long-term potential of space services helped lift up sentiment for the broader sector, with optimism spilling over to key players such as Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY), RocketLab Corp., and AST SpaceMobile, among others.
In other news, Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY) announced plans to expand its production capacity with the addition of two new buildings in Cedar Park, Texas.
The new campus is twice the size of the company’s former Cedar Park facilities, and is less than 30 miles from its 200-acre Rocket Ranch in Briggs, where it operates six test stands and 217,000 square feet of facilities for launch vehicle engineering, manufacturing, and integration.
“With operations centralized in Texas, Firefly is producing rockets and spacecraft at scale to meet the demand of the rapidly growing defense, exploration, and commercial space markets,” Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY) COO Ramon Sanchez said.
“The strategic investments we’ve made in our Cedar Park campus allow us to template our successful Blue Ghost lunar lander into a production line for multiple lunar missions a year that support NASA’s Moon Base initiative and the larger commercial lunar economy.”
6. Lionsgate Studios Corp. (NYSE:LION)
Shares of Lionsgate Studios soared to a new all-time high on Friday, as investors cheered the strong results of its earnings performance in the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026.
In intra-day trading, the stock jumped to its highest price of $14.98 before trimming a few cents to end the session just up by 15.80 percent at $14.95 apiece.
In an updated report, Lionsgate Studios Corp. (NYSE:LION) said that it was able to slash its net loss attributable to shareholders for the full fiscal 2026 by 45 percent to $198.3 million from $362 million in the same period last year. Revenues inched up by 1.8 percent to $2.6 billion from $2.58 billion year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter alone, Lionsgate Studios Corp. (NYSE:LION) swung to an attributable net income of $70.2 million from a $117.4 million attributable net loss, while revenues jumped by 4.7 percent to $906.5 million from $865.6 million year-on-year.
“All of the pieces of our business are coming together—our library has achieved a billion dollars in trailing 12-month revenue for three quarters in a row, more than half of our film, television and live entertainment slates are comprised of branded, repeatable properties, and massive hits like The Housemaid and Michael are strengthening our brand and increasing our forward visibility,” Lionsgate Studios Corp. (NYSE:LION) CEO Jon Feltheimer said.
“We enter fiscal 27 positioned to deliver the earnings power and value creation that our shareholders expect,” he noted.
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