Last week saw volatile trading in the stock market as investors scrambled to react from a series of positive and negative catalysts which sparked buying and selling positions across the board.
On Friday alone, Wall Street’s major indices fell into the red territory over renewed fears of growing trade tensions from some of the world’s largest economies, coupled with expectations of a higher inflation rate.
However, 10 firms defied a broader market slump, posting impressive gains in just a week’s trading.
To come up with last week’s biggest advancers, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.
A trader cheers his market gains. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels
10. Magnite Inc. (NASDAQ:MGNI)
Magnite saw its share prices grow by 23 percent in just a week, ending Friday’s trading at $21.17 apiece as investor sentiment was boosted by its recent partnership with Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter.
While the specific terms of the partnership were not disclosed, MGNI, known for its technology that aids web publishers, application developers, and streaming TV providers in managing and selling advertisements, would serve one of X’s supply-side partners (SSP) by offering a more streamlined advertising system to X and giving advertisers the option to include or exclude the social media platform’s inventory from their media buys.
A representative from MGNI was said to have confirmed the partnership, saying that the collaboration would benefit advertisers leveraging the MGNI platform.
MGNI joins Google and InMobi in providing SSP solutions to X.
9. Affirm Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:AFRM)
Affirm Holdings grew its share prices by 23 percent in just a week’s trading, ending Friday at $75.22 apiece, with investor sentiment said to be fueled by the company’s strong earnings performance in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.
In its earnings release last week, AFRM reported a net income of $80.36 million during the last quarter, reversing a net loss of $166.9 million in the same period a year ago.
Revenues also jumped by 46 percent to $866 million from the $591 million reported year-on-year.
Investors also took path from AFRM CEO Max Levchin’s bullish outlook for the company this year, saying that AFRM is only five months away from turning the firm to profitability.
“But it should be apparent to a casual observer that we are nearly there today—mark it zero,” he said.
AFRM is a technology services company providing financial services to shoppers and merchants.
8. Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI)
Super Micro’s share prices jumped by 27.2 percent in just one week, buoyed by a flurry of positive news that sparked buying appetite.
Last week alone, SMCI announced it was ramping up to full production of its end-to-end AI data center Building Block Solutions accelerated by the Nvidia Blackwell platform.
Secondly, the company is set to provide a long-awaited business update on Tuesday, February 11, where investors will be watching out for the company’s delayed annual report for the 12 months ending June 2024, and whether it will be able to submit all delayed filings by February 25, the final deadline for all delayed filings, which is a key factor to keeping its position as a publicly listed company.
It can be learned that SMCI was temporarily delisted from Nasdaq in 2018 after failing to submit financial statements on time. It returned two years later, and was again penalized by the SEC for “widespread accounting violations.”
7. Teladoc Health Inc. (NYSE:TDOC)
Shares of Teladoc Health jumped 27.46 percent week-on-week to end at $12.95 apiece on Friday as investor sentiment was boosted by an analyst’s bullish outlook for the company following its acquisition of Catapult Health.
In a recent report, Citron Research underscored TDOC’s potential following its buyout of Catapult Health for $65 million and its effective use of technology to enhance profitability and expand margins.
TDOC acquired Catapult Health last week, in line with its efforts to improve early detection of health conditions, expand into at-home diagnostic testing, and deliver better health outcomes in care management that would complement its industry-leading suite of integrated solutions.
Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
6. VNET Group Inc. (NASDAQ:VNET)
VNET Group saw its share prices surge by 29 percent in the first trading week of the month, to end Friday at $9 apiece as investors snapped up shares in the company over continued optimism about its business, as it seeks to ride the booming AI industry by heavily expanding in AI.
In its last earnings call, VNET announced higher capital spending this year on the back of robust demand for its wholesale services. It underscored that it would work closely with its strategic suppliers and maximize the synergies in order to ensure that its capital spending would grow at a steady pace.
At the same call, the company expects to deliver approximately 191 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity until the first quarter of 2025, as well as some 105 MW in the second and third quarters of 2025.
5. AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)
Shares of AST SpaceMobile soared by 30.98 percent week-on-week to end at $26.51 apiece as investor sentiment cheered the company’s upgraded rating from a financial services firm.
On Thursday, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Colin Canfield initiated an “overweight” rating on the satellite communications firm and set a price target of $30 within a year.
According to Canfield, ASTS’ strategic alignment with large telecommunications and technology enterprises such as AT&T and Verizon, alongside its budding defense opportunities and supply chain readiness, make the stock a “buy.”
Just recently, ASTS secured the special temporary authority approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would enable it to test its first five commercial BlueBird satellites.
FCC’s approval would support ASTS’ voice, full data, and video applications and other native cellular broadband capabilities for mobile services giants AT&T and Verizon.
4. Oklo Inc. (NYSE:OKLO)
Shares of Oklo surged by 33.35 percent last week to finish at $55.49 apiece as investor optimism was fueled by the government’s plan to prioritize the expansion of the energy industry over achieving net-zero goals.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s confirmation as the department’s head also spurred optimism for OKLO, being a former member of the firm’s board of directors.
“The Department’s goal will be to unleash the great abundance of American energy required to power modern life and to achieve a durable state of American energy dominance,” the department order was quoted as saying in a report by Reuters.
It also underscored that net zero policies have pushed up the prices of energy for homes and businesses, threatened the reliability of energy systems, and undermined energy security.
OKLO, an advanced nuclear technology company, stands to benefit from the expansion program, further supported by an expected boom in the artificial industry sector.
3. Doximity Inc. (NYSE:DOCS)
Doximity saw its share prices shoot up by 34 percent on a weekly basis to end at $79.23 apiece as investors gobbled up shares in the company after reporting an impressive earnings performance in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025.
In its earnings release, DOCS said net income in the third quarter jumped by 57 percent to $75.2 million from $48 million year-on-year, while net profit for the first nine months surged by 50.2 percent to $160.7 million from $106.96 million year-on-year.
Meanwhile, revenues for the quarter grew by 24.6 percent to $168.6 million from $135.28 million year-on-year, while revenues in the nine-month period rose by 21 percent to $432 million from the $357 million registered in the same period a year earlier.
For the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, DOCS expects revenues to settle between $564.6 million and $565.6 million.
2. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Palantir Technologies hit a new record high last week, touching the $116 level before investors took early profits, dragging its value lower to end at $110.85 apiece.
Friday’s valuation, however, still marked a 34.38-percent jump from its price of $82.49 registered last January 31, or a week earlier. The rally came following news that PLTR achieved a 16-percent growth in net income in full year 2024 at $462 million, supported by a 29-percent jump in revenues at $2.87 billion.
Of the total revenues, US revenues surged by 38 percent to $1.9 billion.
In the fourth quarter alone, net income rose by 10 percent to $79 million, while revenues increased 36 percent to $828 million. US revenues grew 52 percent to $558 million.
Last week’s valuation pushed PLTR’s market capitalization to as high as $240 billion, surpassing the values of household names such as American Express ($221 billion), McDonald’s ($208 billion), and Disney ($207 billion).
1. BigBear.ai Holdings Inc. (NYSE:BBAI)
Investors would have raked in a 102.6-percent increase in their investment had they invested in BigBear.ai’s stock last week, as the company ended Friday’s trading at $8.59 apiece, doubling its $4.24 price on January 31.
The jump followed announcements from BBAI that it bagged a contract to advance its Virtual Anticipation Network (VANE) prototype for the Department of Defense.
The VANE prototype, which would use AI and machine learning, would compile vast amounts of data to forecast adversary actions in multi-domain environments and support US military and intelligence operations.
In particular, it would allow BBAI to support the Office of the Secretary of Defense in utilizing custom AI models to enhance its foreign news media assessment and analysis of countries that are deemed as US potential enemies.
Originally developed in collaboration with the Irregular Welfare Technical Support Directorate, VANE achieved “awardable” status on the CDAO Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace in April 2024.
While we acknowledge the potential of BBAI 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 as promising as BBAI but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
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