When the first quarter of 2020 ended on March 31, the S&P 500 was down 20% year to date on the back of the fear caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak as well as the oil price war between OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and Russia. Over the same period, the Nasdaq Composite declined 14.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a return of 23.2%.
Some of the companies within the S&P 500 Index, however, had better luck. According to the GuruFocus All-in-One Screener, a feature for Premium users, stocks that beat the benchmark index by the widest margin during the quarter included drugmakers like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN, Financial) and Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD, Financial), which is unsurprising as many health care-related stocks got a boost due to working on developing a cure or test kits for the Covid-19 virus.
As it is a key player in making coronavirus test kits and is developing a potential treatment, Regeneron was the top performer for the quarter, beating the S&P 500 by 56.37% and returning 32.27% year to date. With a $54.16 billion market cap, the company’s shares were trading around $495.98 on Thursday morning.
Software companies like Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS, Financial) and NortonLifeLock Inc. (NLOK, Financial) also posted strong returns for the quarter, along with real estate investment trust Digital Realty Trust Inc. (DLR, Financial) and consumer goods manufacturer Clorox Co. (CLX, Financial).
On the opposite end of the spectrum were oil companies like Apache Corp. (APA, Financial), Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO, Financial) and Noble Energy Inc. (NBL, Financial), which took a hit from the oil price war that broke out last month after Saudi Arabia announced its plans to boost production. All three stocks have tumbled more than 75% since the start of the year.
Cruise line stocks like Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH, Financial), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL, Financial) and Carnival Corp. (CCL) were also beaten down as the coronavirus outbreak caused entire ships to be put on lockdown and quarantined. As a result, all three stocks plummeted more than 80%.
As the uncertainty continues, investors may want to look further into these companies as they could be good value opportunities going forward.
Disclosure: No positions.
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