What makes a good stock of the week?

There is no definitive setup, but there are common factors among my picks. 

A combination of factors that can include a sexy or exciting narrative, sometimes one that the wider market hasn’t picked up on. So much the better, if the stock has a credible niche or moat around it – which makes it unique or hard to emulate. And it doesn’t do any harm if there is a technical setup, be that a developing trend, or the opportunity to break above technical levels, moving averages or resistance.

You could sum it up by saying Stock of the Week represents a credible story accompanied by an upside opportunity.

Corning GLW US 

Back in the middle of May, I wrote about fibre optic specialists Corning Inc., one of the stocks supplying key components to the data centre boom. Corning was trading just below $205.00 at the time, and by the end of June it had printed as high as $ 271.78, a gain of some +31.0% in the share price.

However, that was the top; indeed, we saw a shooting star in the candle chart on June 30th confirming the bulls had lost control of the market, and it’s been downhill from there. With the stock pulling back to $132.0 by mid – October. Though that shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Good Money Guide readers because I said at the time that Corning was a stock for trading and not a buy-and-hold.

Corning reports earnings on October 27th

Dexcom DXCM 

Highlighted on May 18th at a price of $63.23, the US medtech company is one of several businesses trying to improve the lives of diabetics through its wearable monitors. Dexcom has a large addressable market in the US and overseas, and the company is aiming to double the number of users of its kit by 2027 and to grow that number by +10.0% per annum thereafter out to 2030. The chart set up on Dexcom at that time was appealing; the price was testing above a long-standing downtrend just below the 50-day moving average with scope for a move to $75.00 and then into the low $ 80.00s. By August 24th, Dexcom had printed a high of $92.59, a gain of almost +25.0% from the levels in my original write-up. For the moment, the price has drifted back below $87.00 ahead of earnings on October 29th 

Umicore UMI BB

Belgian metals and recycling company Umicore failed to follow through after my write-up on the stock on May 26th. When the price was €25.96 it traded up to €26.44 but failed to make any headway beyond that level, selling off to €21.60 before rallying to €24.48. That marked another top for the price, which sold off to €18.69 by July 17th. We saw a hammer on the chart and a subsequent rally to €24.54, a further rejection, and a sell-off to €18.25. Umicore is up +6.31% since late April and down by -6.26% since August 12th. 

So I think we will call that “flat£” and take away the realisation that it’s a range-trading stock rather than a chart breakout.

ARM Holdings ARM US 

Chip designer ARM was my stock-of-the-week pick on June 1st, when it was trading at $397.80 in pre-market, up +12.60% from the prior close; it went on to print $452.70 on June 18th, a +14.0% gain. However, that price marked a high and the appearance of an indecisive or high-wave candle.

The writing was on the wall, and chip stocks have been out of favour since then; ARM have traded back to $225.0, and doesn’t look likely to rally until the sector around it, and AI, becomes much less bearish.

Forgent Power Solution FPS US 

Another stock with data centre exposure, though in this case through the supply and management of power, which is mission-critical to the operation of vast, computer-filled warehouses. I wrote on Forgent on June 8th, when the stock was trading at just below $62.00

The fundamentals and outlook for Forgent Power were promising, and by June 22nd they had printed at $66.00, a gain of +6.40%. Unfortunately, that was it; the stock failed to move higher, and sellers took control soon after. By mid-July, they were trading below $40.00, and by mid-October, they were just above $30.00 a share. An association with data centres can be both a blessing and a curse.

Halfords HFD LN

I wrote about Halfords on June 15th, when the stock was trading at 190.60p. I highlighted the stock’s niche: a large addressable market, growing sales, raised guidance and an ongoing uptrend in the stock price. 

I also suggested that the stock looked like a PE takeover candidate, like so many other quality UK businesses. On Tuesday this week, the stock printed at a high of 284.50p, a gain of just under +50.00%.

Halfords published earnings this morning that showed like-for-like sales up +7.10%; it maintained guidance of profits of £55 to £65 million for 2026-2027 but said that profits would be weighted towards the second half because of investment in marketing and technology. 

The mere mention of investment and the potential for a reduction in profitability saw the stock sell off to as low as 250.40p. The stock is still up by +60p from when I mentioned it, and the pullback might provide the opportunity to top up holdings. However, we learnt that Halfords stock doesn’t take “ bad news “ well at the moment.

Tritax Bigbox BBOX LN 

Written up on 22nd June at 152.60p, a defensive REIT that made its money from warehouses and logistics, which was just about to expand into data centres which offered high margins to BBOX. A bid for its rival Segro supported the share price and shored up sentiment, and we saw the stock trade up to 175p by July 28th, a gain of just over +12.0%. Before the stock succumbed to the negativity around the data centre meme. 

BlackBerry BB US 

A play on physical AI or the Internet of Things, as it used to be known. Since the demise of its smartphone business, BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) has reinvented itself as an indispensable communications layer in the auto industry, providing the link between vehicles and their manufacturers and services they access. 

That communications layer looks very much like the software that the next generation of intelligent machines and robots will require to operate with any degree of autonomy. An early-stage but growing market that BlackBerry is addressing.

I highlighted the opportunity at US $11.40, and the stock rallied to $13.59, a +19.0% gain thereafter, but it was too short-lived; we sold off to $11.66 and then down to $7.47 by early September. Right idea but too early in our adoption, and in the wrong climate. 

Polar Capital POLR LN 

Polar Capital is a boutique hedge fund and fund manager based in London, which was managing US$30.60 billion in assets, and at the time of my article, the manager took an unusual approach to its investment; for example, 50.0% plus of its AI fund was invested outside of information technology. 

I flagged the stock at 978.50p on July 6th; however, that turned out to be close to the peak, and Polar Capital has subsequently drifted sideways and lower, with the stock price at the time of writing trading at 748p. I don’t believe the fundamentals of the business have changed dramatically in this time, but sentiment towards them has and may stay that way for some time, yet a -22.0% loss.

Baker Hughes BKR US 

Oil services group Baker Hughes was my pick in the week of July 13th; the company’s Industrial and Energy Technology division had just won a significant order for turbines and generators, two items that were very much in demand as data centres and others sought to secure this strategically important equipment at the same time. Oil prices remain elevated thanks to the ongoing war with Iran. I highlighted the stock at $58.37; the stock traded up to $66.09 by September 9th, a gain of just over +13.0%, though the stock has since drifted below our entry price.

Goodyear Tyre GT US 

Goodyear Tyre looked cheap but had been gaining in price recently when I wrote it up back on July 21st. There were many reasons why the stock shouldn’t have been appreciating, and yet it continued to do so, and that’s what was attracting me to them. I highlighted them at $7.33, saying that I couldn’t make a strong case beyond the recent price action; however, they failed to make any headway over the next week and by early August they were breaking down /retracing all the way to the current lows circa $4.09. 

Always a punt, but one that presented the opportunity to come out with a small loss when it was clear it wasn’t working. -5.0% loss 

Jet2 Holidays JET2 LN 

Jet2 featured as the stock of the week on July 28th as the summer holiday season got going in earnest; they were trading at 1461p when I highlighted them, and they traded up to 1612p by August 6th and at 1611p on August 14th. Just over a +10.0% gain before gliding back to and just below our entry price.

Finsbury Growth and Income Trust FGT LN

There was a bit of a departure for the stock of the week column into the world of Investment Trusts in the week of August 3rd when I wrote on Finsbury Growth and Income Trust. They were trading at 807.60p back then, and though we have had something of a bumpy journey, FGT has recently printed as high as 844p, a +4.50% gain, though a stock like this and its price performance is more about long-term appreciation than it is about short-term gain.

Quilter QLT LN 

Wealth manager Quilter was my stock of the week on August 11th and was written up at the round number of 200p. The firm was growing assets under management and administration organically and through acquisition in a sector that’s been no stranger to strategic deals itself in 2026. However, there was no further upside; instead, the price fell below 198 and struggled to break above, finally succumbing to gravity on August 28th when it closed at 194.10p and sold off the next day. I think I would call this a failure to launch, but there was ample chance to come out for a small cut before the sell-off, so a -2.00% loss. 

Maurel et Prom MAU FP 

Maurel et Prom was stock of the week for September 1st. French-listed, Indonesian-owned, with assets outside of the Persian Gulf, including Venezuela, the stock looked a good fit for the energy sector zeitgeist. I wrote on the name at €8.42, and they subsequently printed up to €8.60 for just over a +2.0% gain, but the story for Maurel et Prom is about integrating its recent acquisitions and the rehabilitation of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and export capacity, both of which will take time.

Casey’s General Store CASY US 

We looked at Casey’s in the week of September 1st. The fast-growing fuel stop and convenience store chain was making a name for itself among TikToking and Instagramming Gen Zs, and was rapidly becoming a major player in the US pizza market.

Margins on the prepared food skews in Casey’s offering were hard to ignore, as was the idea that Casey’s small-town clientele was underserved and largely ignored outside of its existing locations. 

They were $752..21 at the time of writing and were just about to report their latest earnings. 

Which is why I added the caveat “We can afford to wait for the numbers, which will either make or disprove the investment case before jumping in.”

The numbers were good, but the market reaction wasn’t, and they traded down to $586.42 just a few days later, clearly a case of it being better to travel than arrive. Most people will likely have left well alone, but if you did buy the post-earnings lows, you could be sitting on $140.00 per share, as they are at $698.00 in the pre-market today. 

iShares UK Dividend UCITS ETF IUKD LN 

This UK ETF featured in the week of September 7th as a way to diversify exposure to UK dividends, which is not only attractive to dividend investors because dividends have in the past provided the biggest part of total returns in UK equity indices. A large proportion of dividend-paying stock and little technology exposure make UK blue chips a possible safe haven from other AI-dominated global indices.

The ETF was priced at 1037.60p; since then, the price has drifted down to as low as 970.83p before recovering to trade at 1023.80p. Today’s price is 1010.60p. 

Of course, this is a completely different animal to almost any of my other selections, but since this review is looking at performance rather than idiosyncrasies, we can characterise this as a -2.50% loss (so far); however, we also need to add back in the 12.66p distribution made by the ETF during September.

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight UCITS ETF SPEX LN 

We stayed with the idea of ETFs in the week of September 14th. The idea here was to use an equal-weighted approach to the S&P 500 index to dilute the influence of mega-cap technology stocks in the equity benchmark, which is traditionally market-cap-weighted. 

The ETF was trading around 5448p when I wrote on the stock; it’s now trading at 5540p, up by some +90p in that period (so basically flat), which of course is neither here nor there. 

And nor should it be, because owning this ETF is not about making a quick buck; it’s a considered long-term position taken from a specific viewpoint, and the desire to dilute or offset the tech hegemony and benefit from the performance of 450 other stocks in the S&P index over the longer term.

BlackRock Latam Investment Trust BRLA LN 

I picked this for my stock of the week as a way for UK traders and investors to diversify their portfolios and get emerging market exposure, which is dominated by Southeast Asian technology. I highlighted the stock, which is a minnow in the world of investment funds, at 416.36p; by the 12th of October, it had traded up to as high as 487p in the wake of Brazil’s presidential election results, a +15.50% gain. The dust has now settled on that news, but the trust is still trading at 456p. A nice short-term profit, but the trust is looking for longer-term capital growth, so are we. 

Boku BOKU LN 

We dipped a toe in the world of online payments in late September when I looked at AIM-listed Boku, whose technology facilitates payments for digital services in Asia. Boku has large blue-chip customers, can accommodate 200 payment methods in 60 countries, has more than $80.0 million in the bank and no debt. They were trading at 135p when I wrote about them and printed up to 151p soon after, a near +12.0% gain. If you will pardon the pun, I think there could be “ more” to come from this niche player in the payments sector. For now, they are back at 135p, looking for the next share price catalyst.

Filtronic FTC LN 

I stayed in the AIM market as we entered October, and this time I chose high-end communications specialist Filtronic, which had just won a $60.0 million repeat order from no less than SpaceX for its gallium arsenide-powered amplifiers. The stock was trading at 275 when I wrote about it on October 5th; On October 8th, it printed at 341.12p and more than 2.30 million shares changed hands, a gain of +24.00%. Once more, I feel that there could be more to come from this extremely interesting company.

Tesco TSCO LN 

On the 12th of October, I returned to the main list of the LSE and to familiar ground in the shape of Tesco, the UK’s largest grocer. At the time, Tesco were trading at 505.60p on a forward P/E of 16.30 times, a premium to Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer. Something that I felt was more than justified given its market position and reputation for execution. I obviously wasn’t alone in thinking that because, as I type, Tesco stock is trading up at 545.40p, a gain of just over +7.50% versus the stock of the week price.