I love bargain stocks, especially when they're hitting 52-week lows. Still, it can be instructive to also look at stocks that are riding high.

For one thing, they can make good sell candidates. More optimistically, we may be able to find a few companies that can continue their upward climbs.

In this series, I'll be searching industry by industry for stocks reaching 52-week highs. That way, we'll be able to make a few quick comparisons among semi-related companies.

There are 24 industry groups as defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). Media is one of them.

Below are the top 10 companies in this space (by market cap) that are within spitting distance of their 52-week highs.

Company

Recent Price

52-Week Low

52-Week High

P/E Ratio (Trailing)

Disney (NYSE: DIS)

$36.51

$27.00

$37.98

16.8
Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA)

$20.86

$14.00

$20.56

15.2
DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV)

$43.46

$25.20

$43.56

28.2
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX)

$32.36

$26.40

$34.07

15.0
Thomson Reuters

$37.96

$30.59

$39.31

41.9
Viacom (NYSE: VIA-B)

$38.35

$27.40

$38.00

12.6
Time Warner Cable

$58.45

$38.20

$59.47

17.9
Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA)

$44.97

$26.60

$45.18

35.3
WPP

$57.37

$43.19

$58.70

18.8
Omnicom Group

$43.86

$33.50

$44.08

16.6

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's; and Yahoo! Finance.

I own shares in Disney, so I've been happy with its recent run-up. I've continued to hold because it's a quality company that still has some tricks up its sleeve. I was reading a recent article in ESPN the Magazine (owned by Disney) and I read a story that compared NBA teams to Marvel comic-book characters (Marvel's also owned by Disney), complete with gorgeous drawings. Almost annoying, but kinda cool and brilliant. Sports fans may not know some of Marvel's obscure superheroes, but now they're associated with athletes. That's how you create elusive synergy.

Another company on my radar is Discovery Communications. Why? It’s trotting out the Oprah Winfrey Network at the beginning of next year. I will always bet on Oprah. I've been hoping for lower prices, though. With the launch imminent, I may have to sit on my hands. Why? Look at Sirius XM's (Nasdaq: SIRI) stock chart after the Howard Stern launch in January 2006. The stock built up beforehand and then dropped from those heights. I know from experience.

Here's hoping Discovery makes the 52-week-lows list next month for a better buy-in price.  

If you're interested in reading more about any of these stocks, add them to My Watchlist to find all of our Foolish analysis on them.