The Dow Jones industrial average has had worse weeks this year, but last week was bad enough. The market’s longest-running index closed the week down nearly 1% for the year to date. Only six Dow stocks have managed to post a year-to-date gain and the top-performing stock for most of last year and essentially all of this year has been toppled.
At the end of the trading week, Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was the top-performing Dow stock for the year to date, with a gain of 10.8%. Goldman Sachs added the network equipment maker to its Conviction Buy list last week and raised its price target on the stock from $51 to $54, well above the consensus $48.74. For the 12-month period through Friday, Cisco stock is up 25%. Here’s our take on Goldman’s bullishness on Cisco.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has been riding high for so long that anything looks like down. Shares lost nearly 3% last week to trim the year-to-date gain to 8.85%. The company is believed to be particularly susceptible to the tariffs on aluminum and steel while also a soft target for retaliation from China from the tariffs imposed by the president last week. Over the past 12 months, Boeing’s stock is up 81%.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is up 6.93% for the year to date, even after revelations about major flaws in every processor the company has made for more than a decade. Intel was rumored to be considering making an offer for Qualcomm after President Trump squashed Broadcom’s hostile takeover try. CEO Brian Krzanich said that’s not going to happen anytime soon, if at all. Shares have gained 40% over the past 12 months.
Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) reported solid earnings last week and the stock gave back less than 2% for the week to post a year-to-date gain of 3.33%. Analyst calls that came out after Thursday’s earnings report were somewhat mixed, based on how a given analyst views the company’s future North American business. For the prior 12 months, Nike’s stock is up 16.72%.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) stock has gained 2.61% so far in 2018, even after dropping slightly more than six points last week. Rising interest rates have provided a boost for most financial sector stocks, especially combined with low unemployment rates. Credit card debt topped $1 trillion for the first time ever last year. For the past 12 months, Visa shares have risen by nearly 32%.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has managed a year-to-date share price gain of 1.92%, to round out the list of our six stocks posting increases so far this year. Microsoft has regained some love from analysts based on solid growth in its Azure cloud software. As a result, the stock has posted all-time highs on several occasions so far this year. Over the past 12 months, Microsoft stock has added 34.4% to its share price.
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