In a market that’s been defined by volatility and a notable correction this year, you’d think the best-performing large-cap stocks would be lucky to have eked out single- or barely double-digit gains.
After all, the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow are all down slightly for the year, even after Monday’s major rally on news of yet another tariff development (this time, a 90-day reduction of tariffs on China and a corresponding cut to their reciprocal tariffs on the U.S.).
But the fact of the matter is, over half of the large-cap leaders in 2025 are up more than 50%, the best of the bunch has more than doubled, and the balance of this list of 20 have all risen by more than 40%.
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Here they are, in descending order of their year-to-date (YTD) returns.
The 20 Best-Performing Large-Cap Stocks by YTD Returns
1. Hims & Hers Health (HIMS): 139.5%
2. Tempus AI (TEM): 85.3%
3. XPeng (XPEV): 77.8%
4. AngloGold Ashanti (AU): 73.8%
5. Banco Santander (SAN): 63.3%
6. Deutsche Bank (DB): 60.5%
7. NRG Energy (NRG): 60.5%
8. Duolingo (DUOL): 57.9%
9. Alibaba (BABA): 57.5%
10. Gold Fields Limited (GFI): 55.2%
11. Palantir (PLTR): 55.0%
12. Robinhood (HOOD): 53.6%
13. Okta (OKTA): 53.3%
14. Kinross Gold (KGC): 50.9%
15. Banco Bilbao (BBVA): 48.5%
16. Banco Bradesco (BBD): 46.5%
17. CVS Health (CVS): 46.4%
18. Itau Unibanco (ITUB): 46.2%
19. Elbit Systems (ESLT): 46.1%
20. MercadoLibre (MELI): 44.6%
Hims & Hers (HIMS) is the clear winner from this list, as it’s the only stock to have doubled already in 2025 and it’s outperforming the next best-performing stock by more than 50 percentage points.
It’s also a name that most readers are likely familiar with, especially subscribers to Cabot Top Ten Trader and Cabot Profit Booster, as Mike Cintolo and Jacob Mintz were on this stock early in its run.
Hims & Hers Health is an online pharmacy, but instead of offering everything under the sun for as little as possible, the company has focused on a handful of in-demand areas for guys and gals, including things like hair loss, ED, dermatology, mental health and, more recently, weight loss.
And that last piece has been the biggest. Hims & Hers previously offered a compounded GLP-1 weight-loss drug but has recently begun offering Wegovy, news of which has sent shares up 48% in the last week alone.
Thematically, there are a handful of clear trends in this list as well.
It includes a number of gold stocks which, obviously, have been on an impressive run due to the solid performance of gold all year.
There are also quite a few foreign banks on this list (one of which was added to Cabot Explorer and Cabot Stock of the Week before it broke out).
You’ll also find Chinese EV-maker XPeng (XPEV), which the Cabot Wealth Daily previously touched on in our coverage of flying car stocks.
Lastly, it’s clear that the AI trend still has legs to it, as Palantir (PLTR) has been a notable winner in the artificial intelligence space, as has Duolingo (DUO), which recently spiked higher on a positive earnings call in which management emphasized their AI-driven product expansion.
Due to their significant outperformance relative to the broader markets, this list of the 20 best-performing large-cap stocks would be a good place to start looking for names showing strong relative performance.
I should note that if the U.S. is ready to move on from the tariff war, it may be appropriate to fade some of the thematic names (gold if the dollar starts strengthening again; foreign banks if the “Sell America” trade is over).
But identifying strong stocks in a weak market is a great way to find stocks that may have even more room to run when sentiment heats up.
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