We recently published a list of 10 Hottest Large-Cap Stocks So Far in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) stands against other hottest large-cap stocks so far in 2025.
The stock market as a whole hasn’t had a great start to the year, but there have been some outliers. Focusing on these outliers might pay off in the long run and the statistics behind it — especially this month — are very important. The S&P 500’s calendar year performance has matched the direction of January returns approximately 77% of the time. This means when January shows positive returns, the market finishes higher in 84% of these years with an average annual return of 15.5% for the whole year.
Even if January is negative, the market ends higher some 63% of the time, but with a return of around 2.2%. I’m bringing this up because I believe this correlation can also extend to certain stocks. We’ve seen many mega-cap tech stocks perform well last year after a solid January. A lot of big-cap stocks between $50 billion to $100 billion also performed well.
Accordingly, the methodology for this article involves me screening the top 10 stocks traded in U.S. markets with a market capitalization between $50 billion to $100 billion and then sorted by year-to-date performance.
A row of shelves in a retail pharmacy, demonstrating the variety of drugs and over-the-counter products.
CVS Health (NYSE:CVS)
- YTD Performance: 16.6%.
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is a pharmacy and health insurance company. Before we talk about the gains so far this year, I would like to remind you that CVS stock has mostly been a story about woes for the past three years. The stock is still down 53% from its early 2022 highs despite the recent gains.
Regardless, I do think that CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is close to making a turnaround. The company has had rough financials recently and reported softness in its Health Care Benefits segment due to higher utilization and rising costs. Annual revenues have trended up (up 6% in Q3), but the bottom line has taken a significant hit.
Cautious investors have a right to be skeptical in the short term, but a chunk of the bad news might be priced in already. Many are now waiting to see if the company’s pivot toward cost-efficiency and new leadership can produce a real rebound. If not, we could see further pressure from healthcare cost inflation. That said, I’m seeing more optimism trickling in compared to the gloom that dominated last year.
Overall, CVS ranks 2nd on our list of hottest large-cap stocks so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of CVS 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 time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CVS 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. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
