eBay, AMD Head the List of Nasdaq Stocks Hitting 52-Week Highs Friday

The Nasdaq enjoyed a strong week through July 22, posting gains of 1.38%. The green week was the fourth in a row for the index following its post-Brexit plunge, with it having gained over 10% since June 27.

Among other things, the index was buoyed by strong quarterly results being announced by eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD), and Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX) during the week, all of which had hit their 52-week highs by the end of the week. We’ll take a look at the performance of those stocks in this article, as well as two more notable Nasdaq stocks that hit their 52-week highs on Friday. In addition, we’ll see how hedge funds have been trading these equities recently.

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).

Strong Year Continues for AMD

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) reported its second quarter earnings on Friday and the strong results pushed the stock to new 52-week heights of $5.97 on Friday. The chipmaker pulled in $1.03 billion in revenue and incurred an adjusted loss per share of $0.05 for the quarter, topping estimates by $52 million and $0.03 per share respectively.

It’s been an exceptional year for shareholders of AMD, as their shares have gained more than 103% year-to-date. Shares made their first big move of the year on April 22 when AMD announced a joint venture and SoC licensing partnership with Chinese consortium THATIC alongside its solid first quarter results and upbeat guidance, which pushed shares up by over 50%. Shares haven’t looked back since, trending steadily upward over the past three months, gaining nearly another 50% during that time.

Quant funds in our system were a fan of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) on March 31, as D E Shaw, Renaissance Technologies, Two Sigma Advisors, and AQR Capital Management all held long positions in the stock.

Acquisition Helps VWR Corp Push to Yearly High

VWR Corp (NASDAQ:VWR) inched up to its 52-week high of $30.72 on Friday and has now firmly put its post-Brexit slide behind it. On July 5, the laboratory products and solutions provider announced the acquisition of PAW BioScience Products, Inc. a producer of sanitary fluid handling products used by the healthcare industry, for an undisclosed sum. VWR Corp (NASDAQ:VWR) enjoyed a strong first quarter, as its revenue and earnings beat expectations, with revenue in the Americas being particularly strong at $666.7 million, up by 10.1% year-over-year. However, the company is facing some gross margin pressure and will have to rein in production costs to continue to excel. The company will announce its second quarter financial results on August 4.

Shares of VWR Corp (NASDAQ:VWR) were in the portfolios of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey on March 31. Those funds owned 5.8% of its shares in aggregate.

We’ll run through three more notable Nasdaq stocks that hit their 52-week highs on Friday on the next page.