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Some individual stocks ran laps around the broader stock market this week. The S & P 500 is headed for its fourth weekly gain in five weeks, rising 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, is on track for its fourth straight winning week, up 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite bucked the trend, however, losing more than 0.3% this week. A bevy of economic data encouraged investors. The March producer price index released Thursday showed the basket of prices fell 0.5% from the prior month, despite economists expecting prices to stay the same. Investors saw that as bolstering a trend of cooling inflation seen with the release of the consumer price index Wednesday, which showed the basket of goods and services was up 5% in March from the same month a year ago. That’s smallest year-over-year increase seen in nearly two years. To be sure, stocks were under pressure Friday after the release of disappointing retail sales data. Beyond economic data, investors watched for reports from big banks as earnings season kicks into full swing. CNBC Pro screened for the best performers in the S & P 1500 this week. The data, which is from FactSet, is current through shortly after the market opened on Friday. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals was the best performer of the week with a gain of 18.8%. More than three-fourths of analysts covering the stock rate the stock a buy, with the average price target pointing to upside of 95.3% over the next year. SVB Securities analyst Mani Foroohar joined the bullish pack, upgrading the stock to outperform from market perform on Wednesday. He said the stock’s underperformance relative to large-cap oligonucleotide therapy peers make it a good buy. “Against this backdrop, ARWR’s relative underperformance and multiple shots on goal at extra-hepatic delivery leaves the stock more under-followed and underappreciated than at any time since our initiation of coverage,” he said. It wasn’t the only health stock on the list. Syneos Health , Shockwave Medical and Bio-Techne were also among the best performers this week. Syenos and Shockwave each gained around 16%, while Bio-Techne added almost 11%. Of these three stocks, only Bio-Techne is expected by the average analyst to see share prices rise in the next year. ARWR SYNH,SWAV 5D mountain Arrowhead, Syenos and Shockwave over the past five trading sessions. Outside of health, solar stocks Enphase and SunPower were also among the best performers this week. Both were up more than 11% since the week began. On Wednesday, SunPower announced a financing commitment of $450 million for solar loans. Bank of America upgraded the stock to neutral from underperform Thursday. SunPower has a buy rating from less than one out of every 10 analysts, though the average price target implies the stock could gain 31.6% in the next year. That would mark a turn for the beat-down stock, which has dropped almost 24% this year after losing 18.6% and 13.6% in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Enphase is better liked on Wall Street, with three-fifths of analysts rating the stock a buy and the average analyst expecting shares to rise 37.4% in the next 12 months. HSBC initiated coverage of the stock as a buy Thursday, saying the stock can drive future growth through its energy storage business and demand in Europe. The firm also said Enphase can charge higher prices than rivals because it dominates the U.S. market. The stock has lost about 22.5% since 2023 began. ENPH SPWR 5Y mountain Enphase and SunPower over the last 5 years — CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Michael Bloom contributed to this report
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