Legendary investor and famous contrarian Sir John Templeton once said, “The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy.” The S&P 500 is down 3.7% through March 20, and though we are far from maximum pessimism, many investors feel a little discouraged at the volatility and lackluster performance of the equities markets. It is during times like these that we should take Templeton’s advice to heart. The broad market may be struggling to eke out gains, but there are plenty of good-quality, publicly traded companies that are in bull market mode.
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The trick is to identify and take advantage of trending stocks while they are still going up and still have room to grow. The ongoing digital infrastructure and data center boom has created incredible opportunities in the electric utilities space and in some segments of the technology sector. There are also several promising rising stocks in financials and health care. You just have to know where to look.
The stocks below are a good place to start. All five companies have bucked the downward trend and have beat the market handily over the last month and for all of 2025. It’s impossible to predict how the market will perform down the road, but it’s clear that these companies have something special going for them:
| Stock | Year-to-Date Gain* |
| Consolidated Edison Inc. (ticker: ED) | 21.5% |
| Micron Technology Inc. (MU) | 22.3% |
| Cboe Global Markets Inc. (CBOE) | 12.2% |
| American International Group Inc. (AIG) | 14.9% |
| Cencora Inc. (COR) | 19.2% |
*Through March 20.
Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED)
For many years, Consolidated Edison was considered a somewhat boring regional public utility. The stock was bought by conservative investors more for its growing dividend than for any potential for market-beating capital appreciation. That abruptly changed when new technologies like cryptocurrency, blockchain, cloud computing and artificial intelligence put unprecedented demand on our nation’s power grid.
ED provides electricity to commercial and residential customers in New York City, Westchester County and parts of New Jersey. The company’s pricing power is somewhat constrained by the regulatory authorities, but power demand is through the roof and shows no signs of slowing down.
ED has a market cap of $38 billion and a forward dividend yield of 3.1%. ED is up about 14% over the one-month period ending March 20 and has appreciated 21.5% this year.
Micron Technology Inc. (MU)
The technology sector has not performed especially well so far in 2025. One leading technology benchmark — the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Index — is down about 10%. MU, however, is turning in excellent performance numbers in this choppy and unpredictable market. The chip maker is up 8.5% over the last five trading days and has registered 22.3% appreciation this year.
MU is a leading company in the semiconductor industry. The company’s focus has traditionally been on memory and storage solutions. The big catalyst for the company is AI, which relies heavily on memory-centric chips and hardware to function.
On March 20, the company reported a 38% year-over-year revenue increase for the fiscal second quarter, but investors sold off the stock the following day — a sign that some may have adopted a more cautious outlook as revenue was slightly lower than Q1. Still, the company said it expects Q3 earnings to show quarter-over-quarter revenue growth. MU boasts a market cap of $104 billion and pays a forward annual dividend of 46 cents a share, which works out to a 0.45% forward yield.
[Read: Will the Stock Market Crash in 2025?]
Cboe Global Markets Inc. (CBOE)
Cboe Global is the parent company that owns and operates the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, the largest standardized options and derivatives exchange in the world. The exchange opened for business in 1973 and remains unrivaled in its specialized industry.
CBOE reported trading close to 3.8 billion contracts in 2024, and, due to market volatility and investors seeking stock alternatives, volume has exploded to even greater levels in 2025. The stock has rallied 12.2% this year, while the broad market has struggled.
Craige Siegenthaler, a Bank of America analyst, thinks the stock has more room to run. He reiterated a “buy” rating for the company on Feb. 10 and placed a $251 price objective on the stock. Siegenthaler’s price objective suggests a potential gain of 14.4% from the stock’s March 20 closing price of $219.42.
The stock has a current forward dividend yield of 1.2%.
American International Group Inc. (AIG)
On the last day of trading for 2024, AIG closed at $72.80. On Mar. 20, 2025 the stock ended at $83.71, recording a 14.9% year-to-date gain for 2025. It’s fair to say, this financial stock is trending.
AIG is a $49 billion insurance and financial services giant headquartered in New York City. The company is a leader in casualty and life insurance in the U.S. and globally. Its financial products and services are available in 70 countries.
AIG’s performance is even more impressive when you consider the difficult inflation and interest rate environment it’s had to operate in recently — and the fact that the S&P Financial Sector Index has only managed a 2% gain so far in 2025. In other words, not only is AIG beating the market, but it’s beating its peers in the financial sector.
Some Wall Street Analysts believe the stock still has room to grow. UBS, for instance, has a “buy” on the company, which they reiterated in a research note on March 13.
The current forward dividend yield for AIG stands at 1.9%.
Cencora Inc. (COR)
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania is a small borough about 20 miles outside of Philadelphia. It’s the last place you’d expect to find a global leader in pharmaceutical sourcing and distribution. Nonetheless, that’s where this $52 billion health care company makes its headquarters.
Cencora distributes a wide range of brand-name and generic drugs and over-the-counter health care products, home health care supplies and medical equipment through various wholesale and retail channels, including its thriving online pharmacy.
In addition to its core pharmaceutical business, Cencora provides pharmacy management, health care staffing services, medical supply chain management, clinical trial supervision and consulting services.
The company — previously known as AmerisourceBergen Corp. — has been trending to the upside since it rebranded and renamed itself in August 2023. The stock is up about 50% since its 2023 rebrand, including its 2025 year-to-date performance of 19.2%.
COR pays a forward annual dividend of $2.20. Based on the stock’s March 20 closing price of $267.84, that equates to a forward yield of 0.83%.
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5 Rising Stocks in 2025 originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 03/21/25: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
