It's been a refreshingly good year for most investors. You're probably doing pretty well if you owned one or more of the 24 stocks with market caps north of $10 billion that have more than doubled this year.
Many of the early leaders will likely prove mortal in the coming months. I want to look at two of the names that I think can keep the upticks coming. Palantir (PLTR -1.80%) and Celsius Holdings (CELH 0.34%) are a couple of the two dozen large-cap stocks to have doubled that I think can repeat the feat through the second half of this year. Let's take a closer look at both market beaters.
1. Palantir: Up 143%
The most valuable company to more than double this year is Palantir. It currently has a market cap of $437 billion. Doubling again from here would put Palantir within shooting distance of joining just 10 other U.S. exchange-listed stocks topping $1 trillion in valuation. It would be surprising since it's not a household name, but it doesn't mean that the provider of software solutions for the intelligence community doesn't belong among the list of the market's elite investments.
Palantir initially gained traction with software tools to aid the military in tackling counterterrorism by spotting patterns in intelligence datasets. It has also erupted with applications in the private sector. A surge in serving domestic commercial businesses just helped it top $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time when it posted fresh financials earlier this month.
Image source: Getty Images.
The argument for investing in Palantir is supported by revenue starting to pick up the pace. It also doesn't hurt that Palantir is a legit player in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. After three consecutive years of decelerating top-line growth, Palantir has responded with back-to-back years of acceleration.
Revenue jumped 48% in the second quarter. This is a big step up from the 17% top-line increase it posted for all of 2023, and even the 29% recovery last year. The gains get even more prominent if we focus on Palantir's stateside business that accounts for 73% of its overall business. U.S. revenue climbed 68% to $733 million for the three months ending in June, as a 93% surge in its commercial revenue helped lift the still-impressive 53% increase in government revenue.
This isn't just a top-line growth story, even though revenue quadrupling over five years should be enough to turn heads. Palantir was posting reported losses before turning profitable two years ago. The bottom line is growing even faster these days. Net income more than doubled in back-to-back quarters.
Palantir more than quadrupled last year as its business started to accelerate. It's up another 143% so far in 2025 as it shifts into a higher gear. With momentum on its side it has a shot to double again in the second half of this year.
2. Celsius Holdings: Up 113%
Unlike Palantir, Celsius was a disappointment last year. Shares of the functional beverage company were cut in half in 2024, as slowing revenue growth turned negative. The stock is finally back above where it was at the start of last year, fueled by a narrative-changing acquisition and a surprising return to organic growth.
Momentum comes in threes for the company behind the popular fruit-flavored sparkling beverages. It had three years of revenue more than doubling, making it one of the hottest beverage stocks through 2023. It was coming off three straight quarters of declining sales heading into this month's financial update.
Celsius passed the test with flying flavors. Revenue was a lock to resume growing again in the second quarter, as its $1.8 billion deal for Alani Nu closed at the start of the period. However, the 84% surge in revenue was a welcome surprise over the 64% increase that analysts were expecting. Even organic growth recovered, as the namesake brand scored a 3% increase for the period.
The bigger surprise was the bottom line. The integration of Alani Nu was going to give Celsius a top-line bump, but it was widely expected to be a drag on margins and net income. This wasn't the case. Celsius generated a profit of $0.47 a share, nearly double what Wall Street pros were modeling. Broken growth stocks don't often get a second chance to become market darlings, but Celsius is cracking open the can of that opportunity right now.
