Bulls Drove These 5 Stocks to 52-Week Highs Yesterday

In this bull market, even boring stocks such as Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) are doing well. Shares of the consumer staple hit a 52-week high of $88.95 per share on Tuesday, as many investors likely purchased the stock for its annual dividend of $2.68 per share, good for a 3.02% annual yield. Given Procter & Gamble’s long history of dividend hikes and its very durable and predictable income streams, P&G’s dividend is about as safe as it can get. As long as P&G’s dividend increases every year, many of the company’s investors will be happy; any capital appreciation will just be an added bonus. 56 funds in our system owned $5.54 billion in Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) positions at the end of June.

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) blasted its way to a 52-week high of $69.57 yesterday, as many investors likely bought the stock in anticipation of the company buying back its stock in the future. On Monday, Autodesk announced a new program to buy back up to 30 million shares of common stock, in addition to its existing buyback program, which has around 1.5 million shares remaining under it. In the first half of its fiscal year 2017, Autodesk repurchased around 4.8 million shares at an average price of $56.20. The number of funds that we track with holdings in Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) fell by two during the second quarter to 35 as of the end of June.

After a sharp and painful decline in late-2014 and throughout 2015, U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA) has made a comeback this year. Shares of the fracking sand producer hit a 52-week high of $43.70 per share yesterday, as many investors anticipate an eventual recovery in the energy market. If crude prices normalize, shale activity in the Permian and elsewhere will require a lot of fracking sand and U.S. Silica Holdings, as one of the leading fracking sand companies, will likely ring up solid business as a result. 31 funds were bullish on U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA) at the end of the second quarter.

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