Most traded stocks: Has Tesla stock reached its limit?

Most traded stocks

Below is a list of the 20 most traded stocks among StoneX Retail clients during the five trading sessions to the end of play on Friday June 23. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been excluded.

The rally in Tesla shares stalled last week after the electric carmaker climbed to nine month highs as several brokers warned it had reached fair value after rising 2.5-fold since the start of 2023. Goldman Sachs became the latest to warn the rally has reached its peak after downgrading the stock to Neutral this morning despite raising its price target to $248, echoing sentiment showed by analysts at Barclays and Morgan Stanley last week.

NVIDIA has remained under pressure since hitting fresh all-time highs last Tuesday as the AI-induced rally takes a breather and investors revaluate the chipmaker’s lofty valuation, which sits at a huge 75% premium to its rivals! Competitor AMD experienced heavy losses and closed the week at its lowest level in almost a month.

Palantir also saw its recent AI-driven rally reverse last week with the stock ending the period at its lowest level in almost a month. Raymond James downgraded the stock to Outperform from Strong Buy, showing it still sees upside. ‘The recent run in shares coupled with a premium valuation make finding a catalyst more challenging in the near-term while our [long-term] enthusiasm for AI and Palantir’s positioning support our outperform rating,’ the broker said last Tuesday.

It was a mixed week for Big Tech. Apple shares are on the cusp of setting new all-time highs as it continues to edge closer toward that elusive $3 trillion valuation. Amazon shares remain just below the nine-month highs we saw last week. Meta is currently at 16-month highs. Microsoft shares had a tougher week and remain under pressure since hitting all-time highs earlier this month, while Alphabet continues to underperform its rivals.

Netflix lost ground last week as its value was stretched, with the Relative Strength Index having entered overbought territory before correcting itself as the share price declined. Netflix has been the 22^nd best performer in the S&P 500 this year as investors bank on its crackdown on password sharing and introduction of its new ad-supported platform can revive its fortunes this year.

Disney closed at fresh June-lows on Friday of $88.10, having succumbed to Barclays decision at the beginning of the week to lower its target price to just $88, representing the lowest on Wall Street. ‘We haven’t seen sentiment this negative in Disney for a while,’ the broker said, highlighting the significant underperformance at the House of Mouse versus rival Netflix in 2023.

ImmunoGen’s staggering rise, with the stock having quadrupled in value since the start of May alone, has attracted more traders. The start of the rally in early May coincided with positive trial results from its ovarian cancer drug.

Novo-Nordisk has been grabbing attention as one of the pharmaceutical firms pursuing breakthrough obesity drugs, having announced yesterday that a late-stage trial showed semaglutide helped overweight and obese adults lose 15% of their body weight. That puts it on course to secure regulatory approval later this year, although Novo Nordisk said availability is ‘to be determined’.

German chemicals firm Covestro ended last week at 16-month highs, having jumped after receiving a double-upgrade from Stifel to Buy from Sell as the broker hiked its target price to EUR66 from EUR34! The hike was made as Stifel responded to reports that said Covestro turned down a EUR55 per share offer from ADNOC last week. The broker said investors should focus on its cashflow generation potential over the medium-term rather than muted earnings in the near-term.

Boeing shares took a battering last week after one of its major suppliers, Spirit Aerosystems, closed down one of its plants after workers voted to strike, sparking fears that its ramp-up of its 737 MAX could be disrupted.

Ocado popped to its highest level in almost four months last week after the Times reported that Amazon and another unnamed member of Big Tech could be eyeing the online grocer and automated warehouse maker as a takeover target in a deal worth around 800p per share. However, the stock has given back a chunk of the gains and is currently trading at 528p as doubts over a potential deal rise, with Ocado having been linked to takeover rumours on several occasions in the past.

Rolls Royce attracted attention last week after CEO Tufan Erginbilgic, who is spearheading a turnaround plan since taking over this year, said the long-haul aircraft market is ‘coming back strongly’, partly thanks to swifter recovery than anticipated in China. He also said he was not ruling out forming a partnership in the narrowbody market, although said it was a ‘moot point’ because new airplane projects are more than a decade away. He said the company has a big enough pipeline for its large engine business to survive. Rolls Royce also signed a deal to look after a fleet of engines owned by Kuwait Airlines while Air India also finalised a new order.