Investors gobbled up shares of predominantly technology companies last week, following announcements of multi-billion dollars of investments, quantum technology backing, and new contracts, among others. Let’s take a look at last week’s Top 10 Gainers and explore the reasons behind their impressive performance.
To come up with the biggest winners of last week, we considered only the stocks that have at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.
A laptop and a computer monitor display a detailed stock market technical analysis chart. Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki on Pexels
10. Doximity Inc. (NYSE:DOCS)
Shares of Doximity finished Friday’s trading up by 10.79 percent from Monday’s close of $52.2 apiece, bucking news that the company earned the attention of a shareholder law firm investigating its potential claims against its business prospects and financial performance.
Investors snapped up the company’s shares after earning the “top pick” rating in the healthcare sector from ClearBridge Investments.
In a letter to investors, ClearBridge acknowledged Doximity’s history of consistent execution, saying that while it stumbled last year in effectively communicating realistic guidance and outlooks, “it appears that management has regained investors’ trust through several quarters of solid execution.”
In addition, Doximity announced in its recent State of Telemedicine Report that 83 percent of medical professionals based in the US still prefer having virtual care be a permanent part of their clinical practice—a widespread support that could play a key role in driving the company’s future growth.
9. Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE:ACHR)
Archer Aviation saw volatile trading for its shares last week, even hitting an intra-week high of 21 percent to $10.52 and a low of $8.19, before gaining momentum to close the week at $9.51 apiece.
Archer bucked a bearish atmosphere brought about by the Federal Reserve’s hawkish interest rate forecast for 2025, after announcing that it officially completed the construction of its high-volume manufacturing facility in Georgia, signaling the start of production of Midnight, its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft designed to offer passengers a sustainable, low-noise and safe alternative to ground transportation in congested cities around the world.
According to the company, it anticipates to produce two aircraft per month by the end of the next year. Although still in a pre-revenue phase, Archer’s ambitious plans are complemented by $6 billion in orders for its flying taxis and a push into defense partnerships with Anduril.
8. Oklo Inc. (NYSE:OKLO)
Investors snapped up shares of Oklo last week, pushing its share prices up by 20.63 percent to end at $21.52 each from the $17.84 registered on Monday, on news that the company will power 12 gigawatts of Oklo Aurora powerhouse projects by 2044.
Oklo and Switch called the deal a “Master Power Agreement.” Both companies said they would finalize the binding agreements after achieving the project milestones.
According to Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte, Oklo expects to benefit enormously from Switch’s record of turning visions into reality. “The lifespan of this Master Agreement will allow us to iterate and evolve with Switch, from development to deployment to scaling.”
Switch’s data centers, which power the computing requirements of various companies, are also set to benefit from the clean energy initiative.
7. Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ:LCID)
Shares of Lucid Group on Friday ended at $3.02 apiece, marking a 16.6-percent increase from the $2.59 registered on Monday following reports of a 13.6-percent surge in sales for electric vehicles across the US.
According to Cox Automotive, a total of 116,000 EV units were sold in November, marking a 10-percent increase from the previous month.
It is also worth noting that EV’s share of the overall US auto market was already at 8.5 percent. Lucid, a competitor to Tesla, began taking orders for its new Gravity SUV on November 7.
Despite a significant decline in Lucid’s share price since its initial public offering, analysts remained optimistic about the company’s potential for a rebound, with orders and deliveries over the next few years seen as key indicators of growth.
Furthermore, the backing of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which recently invested an additional $1.5 billion, adds confidence to the company’s prospects.
6. SoundHound AI Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN)
On Friday, SoundHound’s shares surged by 23.19 percent, closing at $21.76, from $17.66 on Monday, as the company continues to capitalize on the growing Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom.
On December 16, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives increased his price target on SoundHound to $22 from $10 and maintained an “Outperform” rating, also posting confidence that the company will see a higher rally in 2025.
According to Ives, the company is “in the early stages of capitalizing on its growth initiatives with enterprise AI demand just starting,” noting that Soundhound is an underappreciated pure-play AI firm that is taking significant strides in taking share across the landscape.
5. Rigetti Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:RGTI)
Last week, shares of Rigetti Computing grew by 29.69 percent from $7.22 on Monday to end at $9.37 apiece, driven by news surrounding the company’s developments in the quantum computing sector.
The global quantum computing market, currently valued at $1.3 billion, is projected to grow at a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.7%, potentially reaching $5.3 billion by 2029 from $1.3 billion at present.
According to analysts, Rigetti stands to largely benefit from the expected growth, as they provide developers with essential resources and recently debuted their innovative Novera quantum processor.
It is also worth noting that Google’s advancements in the Quantum space with its newest Willow chip contributed to the rally on shares of Quantum stocks, including Rigetti.
4. IonQ Inc (NYSE:IONQ)
Similar to Rigetti, quantum computing investors continued to watch out closely for clues on industry developments. Over the past year, IonQ’s stock prices registered a jump of 226 percent, sparking interest from investors.
In addition, various Wall Street analysts weighed in positively on the technology and on IonQ, specifically. Last Monday, Morgan Stanley Joseph Moore increased his price target for IonQ to $37 from $14.90, saying, “We can’t identify a clear catalyst for this kind of equity appreciation in the space over that time, but we do see continued indications that investment in quantum should continue growing at a rapid pace.”
Additionally, Google unveiled its new chip Willo, which also appeared to have had a bullish effect on quantum stocks.
3. Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA)
Despite news of losing the bid against Amneal Pharmaceuticals and having to remove incorrect patents for an inhaler product, shares of Teva recorded an increase of 33.79 percent in the past trading week, ending Friday at $22.09 from $16.51 registered on Monday.
The rise followed an announcement that the company’s Duvakitug drug, developed with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi (SNY), met its primary goals to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Last year, the two companies announced their collaboration to develop treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with hopes that the drug could achieve blockbuster status, generating at least $1 billion in annual sales.
2. BlackBerry Ltd. (NYSE:BB)
Shares of Blackberry traded sideways during last week’s trading before gaining momentum to end the day up by 34.18 percent to $3.68 apiece from the $2.75 registered on Monday.
Investors snapped up shares of BlackBerry following news that it beat its earnings projections in its fiscal third quarter of the year—with a net income of $12 million and revenues of $162 million.
The revenue figure included $19 million in revenue from Cylance, BlackBerry’s cybersecurity arm.
Last week, Blackberry announced that it agreed to sell the Cylance unit to Artic Wolf Networks Inc for $160 million and 5.5 million Arctic Wolf shares. After allowing for the purchase price adjustments, BlackBerry will receive approximately $80 million of cash at closing and approximately $40 million of cash one year following the closing.
Blackberry said that the proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in BlackBerry’s fourth fiscal quarter.
1. Quantum Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:QUBT)
Shares of Quantum Computing posted the highest gains in last week’s trading, recording a whopping 147 percent to end at $17.62 apiece on Friday versus the $7.12 registered on Monday.
Quantum Computing posted notable gains last week after announcements that the company secured a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center for its imaging technology called Dirac-3. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Similar to IonQ and Rigetti, Quantum Computing posted notable gains following news of further advancements in the quantum industry, led by Google’s Willow chip.
Momentum for quantum computing is also accelerating fast, with US lawmakers announcing a $2.7 billion government funding to supercharge quantum innovation across computing, sensing, and communications.
While we acknowledge the potential of QUBT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than QUBT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.
Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.