Ten stocks posted eye-popping gains on Thursday, as investors digested a flurry of industry developments, including the US government’s financial backing, sparking buying appetite for key players in the sector.
The stocks mirrored a broader market optimism, with the Dow Jones leading gains by 0.55 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also finished in the green, albeit picking up by merely 0.17 percent and 0.09 percent, respectively.
Indices aside, this article focuses on the 10 top-performing names on Thursday and breaks 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. AXT Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI)
AXT Inc. climbed by 15.69 percent on Thursday to close at $121.02 apiece, in line with its participation at a conference during the day.
Investors loaded portfolios in anticipation of business updates from its participation in the 26th Annual B. Riley Securities Institutional Investor Conference in Los Angeles, California, on the same day.
It will be followed by the 23rd Annual Craig-Hallum Institutional Investor Conference in Minneapolis on May 28. It would also join the Northland Securities Virtual Growth Conference on June 23.
Investors are expected to watch out for the company’s outlook and growth guidance for the rest of the year, after it adjourned its Annual Stockholders’ Meeting last week due to the lack of a quorum.
In other news, AXT Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) earlier this month announced a huge improvement to its earnings performance for the first quarter of the year, with attributable net loss slashed by 81 percent to $1.62 million from $8.798 million in the same period last year. The drop was due to an 84 percent decrease in operating loss, at $1.585 million versus $10.275 million year-on-year.
Revenues also surged by 39 percent to $26.9 million from $19.3 million year-on-year.
Looking ahead, AXT Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) posted a highly optimistic outlook about its business, with the company expecting to ride the booming artificial intelligence industry through a strong demand from data center operators.
9. Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM)
Arm Holdings notched a fresh all-time high anew on Thursday, as investors resumed buying positions after it earned an analyst’s highly optimistic outlook, with the company’s profits expected to grow fivefold over the next four years.
In intra-day trading, Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM) climbed to a new high of $298.69 before trimming gains to end the session just up by 16.16 percent at $298.23 apiece, thanks to Bernstein’s outperform rating for its stock, alongside a $300 price target.
In a market note earlier in the week, Bernstein said that the coverage was based on the belief that Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM) is capable of growing its profits fivefold by 2030, amid the renaissance of CPUs for agentic AI, given the rapid shift from chatbot to AI agents.
Bernstein also noted that Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM) is expected to capture a fourfold increase in CPU market share over the next four years to hit $137 billion.
“Arm stands out in server CPUs given its unparalleled power efficiency,” the investment firm said.
In other news, Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM) reported a 49 percent jump in its net income in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 to $313 million from $210 million in the same period last year. Revenues also increased by 20 percent to $1.49 billion from $1.241 billion.
For the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 ending June, the company has set a revenue outlook of $1.26 billion, plus or minus $50 million. This would imply a 19.6 percent jump from the $1.053 billion reported in the same period a year earlier.
8. Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH)
Enphase Energy notched a new 52-week high on Thursday, as investors resumed buying positions after the company earned a bullish rating and a double-digit price target upgrade from Goldman Sachs.
In intra-day trading, the stock climbed to a fresh record high of $63.27 before trimming gains to end the session just up by 17.29 percent at $62.34 apiece.
In a market note earlier in the week, Goldman Sachs upgraded its price target for Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH) by 11.8 percent to $57 from $51 previously, while maintaining a “buy” recommendation.
The positive coverage came amid the looming July 4 deadline for a federal solar tax credit, under which projects must begin construction and equipment must be safely harbored by the deadline for developers to qualify for a 30-percent incentive. This is expected to boost sales of solar and technology companies on the expectation that customers would scramble to place their orders prior to the deadline to qualify for the incentive.
In other news, Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH) on Monday unveiled a new PowerMatch technology for two IQ Battery systems—a 5P and a 10c—which intelligently adjust IQ battery operations to match a home’s real-time power needs.
The 10C variant is available for sale in the US and Puerto Rico, while the 5P is now for sale across North America and select countries in Central America and the Caribbean.
Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH) said that the two products would help deliver more usable energy, improved efficiency, and long-term savings for its customers.
7. Wolfspeed Inc. (NYSE:WOLF)
Wolfspeed climbed by 18.56 percent on Thursday to close at $69.50 apiece, as investors welcomed the launch of two new power module families designed to address the power needs of AI data centers.
In a statement, Wolfspeed Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) unveiled the 3.3kV silicon carbide (SiC) high-power half-bridge baseplate modules designed for less than 800 amp applications and optimized for demanding converter topologies for solar, grid-scale energy storage, and wind-power infrastructures.
It also introduced the scalable full-bridge baseplate-less modules for solid-state transformers (SSTs) and modular renewable energy infrastructure, engineered for modularity, offering flexibility to configure multi-level, series-stacked, or parallel converter architectures with consistent, matched performance.
In other news, Wolfspeed Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) said that it slashed its net losses by 58 percent in the three months ending March 2026, at $119.9 million versus $285.5 million in the same period last year.
Revenues declined by 18.9 percent to $150.2 million from $185.4 million year-on-year, but fell within its earlier guidance of $140 million to $160 million.
CEO Robert Feurle said that Wolfspeed Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) continued to make meaningful progress against its priorities, improving long-term growth trajectory and financial flexibility to execute strategic priorities.
6. Quantum Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:QUBT)
Quantum Computing rallied for a second day on Thursday, jumping 19.35 percent to finish at $11.41 apiece, after earning the backing of the US government for the development of supercomputers in a bid to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
Under the CHIPS and Science Act, the US Department of Commerce is shelling out over $2 billion in federal incentives to support a portfolio of quantum companies in accelerating the development of utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Of the $2 billion, nine companies are set to receive a slice of the total amount, with IBM taking home the largest chunk, at $1 billion, followed by GlobalFoundries with $375 million. Other companies included D-Wave, Rigetti, Atom, Diraq, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, and Quantinuum.
While Quantum Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:QUBT) was not a direct beneficiary, the US government’s initiative sparked a broader optimism for the overall quantum sector, having been seen as an industry practically useful decades away.
In other news, Quantum Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:QUBT) reported a dismal earnings performance in the first quarter of the year, having incurred a $4.05 million net loss, or a reversal of the $16.98 million net income in the same period last year.
Total revenues markedly jumped by 9,364 percent to $3.69 million from only $39,000 year-on-year.
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