The market's been rallying in recent months, but there are some worrywarts out there who feel that it's time to take some money off the table. Between political uncertainty and the "sell in May and go away" seasonality purists, the market hitting new highs may seem more daunting now.
The good news is that there are opportunities in any market climate. Let's take a look at three stocks that have been hot this year -- up at least 50% year to date -- that could be heading higher in June and beyond: Weight Watchers (WW -4.22%), Momo (MOMO -0.69%), and Activision Blizzard (ATVI).
Image source: Weight Watchers.
Weight Watchers
They say that the hardest thing about losing some weight is putting it back on, but Weight Watchers investors don't mind if we apply that scenario to their stock. The provider of weight management solutions has seen its stock more than double this year -- up a scorching 140% through Wednesday's close -- but that was only after shedding nearly half of its value last year.
Weight Watchers stock has been volatile since Oprah Winfrey came in as both a major investor and the platform's spokesperson. Investors were disappointed when her arrival didn't immediately translate into a spike in membership, but we've now seen subscribers increase consistently over the past year. The stock is working on its eighth straight month of gains. Momentum is clearly in its corner.
Momo
Momo is another stock that has become a market darling this year, up 120% so far in 2017. The Chinese app developer has a hot live video broadcasting platform with 85.2 million monthly active users.
Revenue soared 421% in its latest quarter, with its top line growing a lot faster than its actual user base. Momo has become a beast of monetization, armed with more than 4 million paying users and a sticky app that's magnetic to both its users and the brands that want to reach them.
Activision Blizzard
The country's largest video game company joins Weight Watchers in seeing its stock hit new highs this week. People tend to think of World of Warcraft or Call of Duty when they think of Activision Blizzard, but these days it's thriving on the success of Hearthstone, Overwatch, and the mobile gaming juggernauts it acquired in its $5.9 billion acquisition of King Digital.
The market is digging the game master. Activision Blizzard stock is up 65% this year, a far cry from the triple-digit gains at Weight Watchers and Momo, but still a market-trouncing performance. Activision Blizzard is riding several hot trends including esports -- with more and more people tuning in to watch others play games on a global competitive level -- and the digital delivery of software that opens the door to incremental revenue from in-game purchases and extended playing lives of titles through direct updates and expansions.
Gamers can be fickle, and we saw that here when revenue declined in 2013 and 2014. However, Activision Blizzard clearly has a hot hand now, and it's a hand that it will excel at playing this summer.
