52-Week Highs: AT&T, Apple, Netflix
NEW YORK (
) -- A wealth of healthy buying in recent weeks led a variety of blue chips to hit fresh
on Wednesday -- many for the second and third consecutive session -- including technology darling
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. Report
and Dow Jones industrial average components
Du Pont
(DD) - Get DuPont de Nemours, Inc. Report
and
Kraft Foods
(KFT)
.
Jim Cramer told the viewers of his
TheStreet Recommends
TV show last week the
tells us everything we need to know about the market, though it's not the number of companies hitting 52-week highs that's important, it's the number of industries represented on the list.
>>Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: 52-Week High Breakout
He explained that just a month ago, there were only three industries on the list, and they represented people's fears of the market. But today, there's an astounding 25 different industries represented, a diverse swath of our economy.
Ranked by volume, the most heavily-traded stock to hit a fresh 52-week high Wednesday was
AT&T
. Ma Bell saw its share bid up to an annual height of $28.92 in morning trading. CEO Randall Stephenson said Tuesday he expects record sales of the company's higher-end handsets.
Shares of Apple rose to a 52-week high of $287.98 on Wednesday, after touching $283.78 on Monday.
The stock's push higher was thanks in part to an
analyst report from Kaufman Bros. earlier this week that suggested strong iPad sales could lift Apple's quarterly results above Wall Street's current expectations. Analyst Shaw Wu raised his price target on Apple shares to $374, from $350.
American depositary receipts of Chinese solar company
JA Solar Holdings
(JASO)
gained to $8.16 on Wednesday, after hitting $7.53 on Monday and $8 on Tuesday. JA Solar was among the top five producers of solar cell manufacturers in the second quarter.
Shares of
Pactiv
(PTV)
, the maker of consumer and foodservice/food packaging, pushed up $32.82 on Wednesday.
Silver miner
Silver Wheaton's
(SLW)
shares gained to $25.83.
DVD-by-mail retailer Netflix rose steadily to a 52-week high of $156.67 on Wednesday. The gain was driven in part by news that
beleaguered movie rental chain Blockbuster (BLOKA.PK) is on the verge of bankruptcy
.
Cigarette maker
Altria
(MO) - Get Altria Group Inc Report
rose to a fresh annual height of $23.98 on Wednesday.
Gold producer
Newmont Mining
(NEM) - Get Newmont Corporation Report
pushed up to a new 52-week high of $65.50 as gold prices trade near all-time highs.
ADRs of
Vodafone
(VOD) - Get Vodafone Group Plc Report
rose to a fresh annual height of $25.80. Vodafone is the second-largest cellular service provider in India and crossed 100 million subscribers during April. India is an important market for Vodafone as it accounts for around 7% of the group's revenue share.
L-1 Identity Solutions
(ID)
gained to another 52-week high of $11.68 on Wednesday.
Earlier this week,
L-1 Identity, a maker of high-tech recognition and security systems, agreed to be acquired by France's
Safran
for $12 a share, or $1.6 billion including debt.
Kraft Foods
was another repeat performer Wednesday. The maker of Oreos cookies and Maxwell House coffee hit an annual share price high of $31.79 on Wednesday, after pushing its annual boundaries higher in at least the past two trading sessions.
Electric utility
Duke Energy
(DUK) - Get Duke Energy Corporation Report
gained to $18.08. Duke will spend $15 million to upgrade a hydro plant in South Carolina.
Novell
(NOVL)
, a software maker, saw its share price rise to a 52-week high of $6.53 on Wednesday.
DirecTV
(DTV)
was another repeat performer, gaining to $42.23 on Wednesday.
Semiconductor maker
Skyworks Solutions
(SWKS) - Get Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Report
bid up to an annual height of $19.99.
Skyworks raised its financial outlook for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 given broad-based improvements in order demand.
Telecom firm
Windstream
(WIN) - Get Windstream Holdings, Inc. Report
, also a repeat performer, bid up to $12.94 on Wednesday. Cramer said last week he liked Windstream's yield, and preferred its stock to that of competitor
Frontier Communications
(FTR) - Get Frontier Communications Corp. Report
.
>>Mad Money Lightening Round: Go With Fedex
Dow component
Du Pont
saw its share price gain to $45 on Wednesday, topping heights reached Monday and Tuesday.
The chemical maker said Monday it and
Invista
signed a settlement agreement to resolve three existing lawsuits between the companies.
Food processor
Archer Daniels Midland
(ADM) - Get Archer-Daniels-Midland Company Report
rose to $33.54 on Wednesday. Archer Daniels' shares were recently downgraded to hold, from buy, by Stanford Research.
Deutsche Bank
(DB) - Get Deutsche Bank AG Report
has a buy rating on the stock.
Shares of data warehouse provider
Netezza
(NZ)
bid up to an annual high of $28.94.
Netezza said Monday it agreed to be acquired by IBM (IBM) - Get International Business Machines Corporation Report for $1.7 billion, or $27 per share in cash
.
Netezza was recently featured on TheStreet's list of most overbought stocks
.
>>18 Overbought Stocks to Sell Now
Bulk retailer
Costco Wholesale
(COST) - Get Costco Wholesale Corporation Report
also gained to new annual heights on Wednesday, rising as high as $28.94 in Wednesday's trading session.
-- Written by Miriam Marcus Reimer in New York.
>To contact the writer of this article, click here:
Miriam Reimer
.
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