This week, which stocks lagged or dragged? Weekly Winners column keeps up with market trends, helping Tigers sort out the week's hottest sectors, stock winners and important news.
Below are the top 10 S&P 500 stock gainers for the week ended Oct. 3:
Western Digital, Seagate Ride AI Wave to All-Time Highs
Western Digital and Seagate Technology have rocketed more than 300% from April lows, hitting record highs on Thursday as investors bet on AI-driven storage demand.
The rally was invigorated in recent sessions as Wall Street brokerages hiked their price targets on the stocks, with Morgan Stanley last week saying “demand for hard disk drives is inflecting higher driven by stronger cloud spend.” Large-scale data center operators, or "hyperscalers" have a growing need for high-capacity drives to support AI workloads, which is driving a surge in nearline HDD demand.
But analysts forecast show the rally may have overshot. Western Digital’s median target price has jumped to $95 from $60 three months ago, but still implies a 27% drop from its last close. Seagate’s median target of $175 suggests a 32% downside, even after rising from $128.
FICO Shares Surge 22% on Direct Licensing of Mortgage Scores
Fair Isaac Corp's shares surged 24% on Thursday after the U.S. data analytics company said it would license its credit scores directly to mortgage resellers, raising concerns of margin pressure for major credit bureaus.
FICO score, created by Fair Isaac, is a U.S. credit scoring system used by nearly 90% of lenders to evaluate a borrower's creditworthiness. The higher the number, the lower the risk of default.
Fair Isaac said direct access to FICO scores for lenders and mortgage resellers would increase competition and bring price transparency.
"This new distribution model will allow lenders to avoid paying the current about 100% markup the credit bureaus currently charge for the FICO score," analysts at brokerage Raymond James said.
Coinbase Joins Ripple in Regulatory Push Amid New Trust Charter Filing
Major crypto exchange Coinbase said it has applied for a National Trust Company Charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to expand upon its custody business, joining other crypto firms seeking to benefit from regulatory oversight and clarity at the federal level.
In a recent tweet, Coinbase made known this development, which it refers to as a significant step in expanding its business capabilities and regulatory oversight beyond the existing framework.
In an official blog post, Coinbase revealed that it has no intention of becoming a bank, and as it seeks a national charter, Coinbase Custody Trust Company (CCTC) and Coinbase will continue operating under the oversight of the NYDFS.
Biogen price target raised to $167 from $142 at BofA
BofA analyst Tim Anderson raised the firm’s price target on Biogen to $167 from $142 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares.
While the timing of President Trump’s drug pricing announcement with Pfizer (PFE) was a surprise, the substance was “pretty benign overall,” which has triggered a partial re-rating of many, but not all, large cap biopharma companies, the analyst tells investors.
The firm is taking this opportunity to adjust select price targets in the group, taking into account these recent updates as well as other fundamental changes, the analyst noted.