50 Second Quarter Stocks to Watch

The second quarter is underway–here are historical outperformers and underperformers

Subscribers to Chart of the Week received this commentary on Sunday, April 2.

With the second quarterly fully underway, Schaeffer’s Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White pulled S&P 500 Index (SPX) names that have tended to outperform and underperform in Q2, over the past 10 years.

The table on the left covers the top 25 performers for Q2 and looks at the average and median returns, as well as how often these returns were positive. The top three equities to make the list are Newell Brands Inc (NASDAQ:NWL), Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK), and Iqvia Holdings Inc (NYSE:IQV). The latter two have ties to the healthcare field, along with nine other stocks that made White’s “Best of” list. Newell Brands stock tends to see an average return of 4.6%, which is positive 90% of the time. MRK is not far behind with a 4.1% average return and 90% win rate as well. Lastly, IQV tends to pull a nearly 10% return, on average, all but 10% of the time. These returns will be a warm welcome, for the current state of first quarter results suggests a 6.5%, 4.6%, and 3.8% deficit for each, respectively.

Inking out the top three spots on White’s “Worst of” Q2 performers are surprisingly big names. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON), and Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV) round out as the worst of the worst — the former two only managing a positive return once in the last decade. For more perspective, WBA sees an average return of -5.1%, ON -0.5%, and LUV -6.4%. The lattermost has only managed a 20% win rate, which seems to run in-theme with the stock’s long-term performance since its December holiday travel fiasco.

If you’d like to continue to dig into quarterly updates and a broader trading habit-check, peek at our previous Chart of the Week. We checked in on Schaeffer’s Top Stock Picks for 2023, as well as some favorite exchange traded fund (ETF) names.