The stock market finished Wednesday’s trading on a lackluster note, with the three major indices finishing mixed, as investors digested news of the US economy’s contraction in the first quarter of the year that triggered fears of a possible recession.
Among all major indices, only the Dow Jones and S&P 500 ended in the green, up 0.35 percent and 0.15 percent, respectively. In contrast, the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped by 0.09 percent.
Ten firms, on the other hand, managed to record strong gains, thanks to impressive earnings performance and optimistic outlooks for the rest of the year.
In this article, we have named 10 of the top-performing stocks on Wednesday and detailed the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with a $2-billion market capitalization and $5-million trading volume.
A trader cheers his market gains. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels
10. Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (NYSE:SAND)
Sandstorm Gold saw its share prices rise by 3.69 percent on Wednesday to close at $8.70 apiece as investors snapped up shares on optimism that it would report an impressive earnings performance for the past quarter.
In its market note, Zacks Research said that it expects Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (NYSE:SAND) to be one of the three firms to beat analyst estimates to reflect the higher gold prices in the period. The two others were Kinross Gold Corp. and IAMGOLD Corp.
“Higher prices are expected to have supported the performance of gold miners in the first quarter,” Zacks Research said.
According to Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (NYSE:SAND), it is scheduled to release the official net earnings figures for the first quarter on May 6, 2025.
During the past three months, the company said it sold approximately 18,500 attributable gold equivalent ounces and realized record preliminary revenues of $50.1 million.
9. Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ)
Mondelez International grew its share prices by 3.78 percent on Wednesday to close at $68.13 apiece as investors cheered the company’s earnings beat and maintained outlook for the rest of the year.
In its latest earnings release, Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ) said that its performance for the first quarter of the year provided the company with continued confidence to maintain its full-year 2025 outlook.
For this year, the company reaffirmed organic net revenue growth of 5 percent and adjusted earnings per share to decline by approximately 10 percent. The company also expected free cash flow of more than $3 billion.
During the first quarter, net income attributable to the company fell by 71 percent to $402 million from $1.412 billion in the same period a year earlier, while revenues were flat at $9.3 billion.
“We delivered solid Q1 2025 results in line with our expectations, driven by strong execution of our growth strategy while navigating unprecedented cocoa cost inflation,” said MDLZ Chairman and CEO Dirk Van de Put. “We remain committed to delivering against our strategic agenda and staying agile in this volatile operating environment to drive sustainable shareholder value.”
Hedge Fund Resource Center