A lot of stocks are winning these days. There were 1,234 stocks on the three major U.S. exchanges hitting new 52-week highs, and some of the names on that long list may surprise you.
Ambarella (AMBA -0.98%), Sleep Number (SNBR -2.05%), and JetBlue (JBLU -4.55%) are three of the names hitting their highest stock price levels in more than a year. Let's dive in to see what's driving the winning streaks at these three market winners.
Image source: Sleep Number.
Ambarella
The provider of low-power, high-def video compression and image processing solutions was a rock star a few years ago. It was riding all of the hot trends as the camera chip of choice for leading makers of action cameras, drones, and home surveillance systems. It was posting torrid double-digit growth for years until its business came undone in 2017.
Sales of action cameras and high-end drones started to dry up, and even some of Ambarella's longtime customers began exploring other options. It would go on to post eight consecutive quarters of double-digit declines in revenue, but that streak finally ended in its most recent quarter. Wall Street's a believer again. Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore boosted his price target on the stock late last month, arguing that recent contract wins and its leadership role in computer vision solutions could help deliver 160% to 250% growth by 2025.
Sleep Number
The maker of air-chambered mattresses that offer adjustable firmness settings shouldn't be at the top of its game. The mattress industry isn't exactly a hotbed -- pardon the pun -- of growth. One might assume that any growth in this niche is coming from companies such as recent IPO Casper Sleep (CSPR) and other direct sellers targeting the high-end market, but that's not entirely the case.
Casper Sleep is a relative speedster in this niche, growing its top line 20% through the first nine months of last year. Revenue has been accelerating along the way. Sleep Number is no slouch. It's rattled off four consecutive periods of double-digit top-line growth, and the 15% uptick it posted last time out was its second strongest increase in the past four years. It posts fresh quarterly results later this week. Sleep Number is also very profitable, something that can't be said about Casper Sleep.
JetBlue
Only one of the major airlines hit a new 52-week high last week, and that was JetBlue. The frills-flush discounter may not seem to be ascending at first glance. Revenue per available seat mile has been declining in recent quarters, and the stock is the worst performer over the past decade among the six largest publicly traded U.S. airlines.
Wall Street is still checking in to fly JetBlue, though. It's the only major U.S. airline that didn't have any of the controversial and now grounded 737 MAX aircraft on its fleet. Despite coronavirus fears weighing on an appetite for air travel, JetBlue sees growth in 2020, it's hitting fresh highs as one of the market's top stocks. It has also landed ahead of analysts' profit targets in all four quarters of 2019.
