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 EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) 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.
An oil rig in action in a vast desert, drilling for natural gas.
EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG)
- YTD Performance: 8.9%
EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) is an oil and gas company. EOG stock isn’t as interesting as the YTD performance may suggest and the stock has gained some 6-ish percentage points since its high back in 2018. It then had a significant correction back to the $34-$35 level during the pandemic before recovering. The gains we’ve seen this year are also part of a smaller recovery from an earlier correction.
In my opinion, most if not all oil and gas companies — minus the midstream ones — are at the mercy of the broader economy. They will expand when the economy does and will contract significantly when the inverse occurs. We’re currently seeing solid headline figures but that also means you’re paying a premium for EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG). The top line here declined by 3.9% and the bottom line fell by 17.6% YOY in Q3. As such, I think it is a better idea to look into other oil stocks if you’re bullish on that sector. Here’s one with positive growth that we covered recently.
Overall, EOG ranks 7th on our list of hottest large-cap stocks so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of EOG 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 EOG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
