The S&P 500 is poised to close out the second quarter with a 15% gain, its largest in six years. While semiconductor and memory stocks drove the index higher, an animal health firm and consulting companies rounded out the laggards.
The top performer from April to June was, unsurprisingly, Sandisk. The stock maintained its relentless momentum, surging 249% over the three-month period.
Sandisk is benefiting from artificial-intelligence demand and a memory supply shortage that have boosted prices. Over the past 12 months, shares have skyrocketed 4,804%. On June 25, Sandisk soared, riding the coattails of Micron Technology's earnings. The fellow memory chip maker's financial report showed the NAND flash memory market will stay tight through next year. Wall Street attributes the strong NAND demand to rise of agentic AI, which requires lots of memory storage.
Micron Technology stock gained 244% in the second quarter, its strongest ever quarterly performance. That was despite falling after reporting strong third-quarter earnings last week. Guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter was similarly positive, suggesting Micron's memory sales are set to reach yet more highs in the current quarter. Much like Sandisk, the memory chip maker is riding the wave of historic demand for memory chips due to AI. Over the past 12 months, shares have advanced 854%.
Intel spiked 221% in the quarter. The chip maker got a big boost after President Donald Trump earlier this month said Intel had won a chip-manufacturing deal with Apple, in another positive sign of demand for chips. The company also hired former SK Hynix CEO Seok-Hee Lee as executive vice president of Intel Foundry, its chip-manufacturing business. Much of the stock's recent performance is based on expectations that the company's Foundry unit can attract external customers to offset the billions of losses the company has booked on its chip-manufacturing operations. Intel was a Barron's stock pick on April 14.
Marvell Technology added 197% in the past three months. Marvell's business designing custom AI chips -- called application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICS -- has long been what investors were interested in. However, excitement around Marvell's networking products is what has catapulted the stock 284% over the past 12 months. Wall Street is growing even more optimistic about Marvell's optical-networking opportunity with analysts believing it could be more durable than Marvell's custom AI chip business.
Advanced Micro Devices rounded out the top five with shares of the chip maker gaining 185% in the quarter. The stock was also set to close above the $900 billion market capitalization level for the first time ever on Tuesday. The stock has been driven higher mostly by demand for the company's AI-optimized central processing units and Wall Street doesn't expect that to change any time soon. In May, AMD reported that data-center sales rose 57% in the first quarter and expected strong sales and adjusted gross profit in the second quarter.
As for the worst performers: Zoetis cratered nearly 40% in the quarter. The animal health company slashed its full-year profit and revenue guidance at the start of last month. CEO Kristin Peck cited a pullback in consumer spending, noting that budget-conscious pet owners were cutting back on vet visits and opting out of premium products.
Intuit fell 39%, continuing its descent after finishing May as one of the biggest laggards in the benchmark index. The losses are pegged to last month's sweeping layoffs, which came amid the software provider's attempt to streamline operations. In an interview with Barron's , CEO Sasan Goodarzi pushed back on market concerns that artificial intelligence was to blame.
Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions declined nearly as much. Blame Accenture's May guidance cut, which sparked a wider selloff in the consulting sector. As AI disruption continues to threaten the industry, Cognizant faced another major blow at the end of June, when the stock was removed from the Nasdaq-100 after more than two decades in the index.
Accenture plunged nearly 38%. Last month, mixed fiscal third-quarter earnings triggered the stock's worst single-day percentage decline on record. Ahead of the report -- which included Accenture's second guidance tweak of the year -- the company doubled down on its controversial acquisition strategy by purchasing two cybersecurity firms and taking a majority stake in a third.
Charter Communications declined 35%. Shares of the country's largest cable provider plunged at the end of April when Charter disclosed that it had lost more broadband customers than expected. Analysts expect Charter's pending acquisition of Cox Communications to serve as a powerful stock catalyst once the deal closes later this year.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com and Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 30, 2026 15:09 ET (19:09 GMT)
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