Weekly Winners | SanDisk and Robinhood Soar 17%; Dell Surges 15%; Micron Jumps 9%

This week, which stocks lagged or dragged? Weekly Winners column keeps up with market trends, helping Tigers sort out the week's hottest sectors, stock winners and important news.

Below are top 10 S&P 500 stock gainers for the week ended September 4:

SanDisk and Micron Jump as Chip Stocks Shrug Off Rising Rate Hike Odds

The broader market slipped on Friday after a much stronger-than-expected jobs report revived fears the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates. Higher rates normally hurt fast-growing tech stocks.

Yet memory stocks went the other way, because investors see the AI-storage shortage as a powerful trend that can lift these companies regardless of what the Fed does. That “memory defies the selloff” split is the story of the day for chip investors.

SanDisk shares jumped 17.2% this week, while Skyworks Solutions gained 12.5%, Micron Technology rose 9%.

Robinhood Stock Soars Thanks to Wall Street Upgrades, Platform Expansion

Robinhood shares jumped 17.1% this week on a more favorable outlook for the company and after several analysts published positive reports about the brokerage firm’s stock in recent days.

Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys thinks Robinhood’s efforts are bearing fruit, and he raised his rating of Robinhood stock to Overweight from Equal-weight on Sept. 1.

Lately, the stock also has been benefiting from a jump in crypto prices; Bitcoin is up 25.6% over the past month. But the company has also been striving to expand its offering for customers and diversify its sources of revenue. In recent years, the company has added new banking, lending, wealth management, and other services for customers. It has also grown its subscription service, Robinhood Gold, which reached a record 4.8 million subscribers for the second quarter.

Dell Shares Rise After Boosting Sales Outlook by $25 Billion

Dell shares jumped 14.9% this week as the company boosted its annual sales forecast by $25 billion in a further sign of surging demand for servers to run artificial intelligence tasks.

Revenue in the fiscal year ending in January 2027 will be about $192 billion, including $74 billion from the sale of AI servers, the Texas-based company said Tuesday in a Dell Technologies Delivers Second Quarter Fiscal 2027 Financial Results. That’s up from an outlook in May of about $167 billion and topped analysts’ average projection of $173.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The AI server forecast represents a threefold increase over the prior year. This is the fifth straight quarter that Dell’s fiscal year revenue outlook topped estimates.

Deere Stock Rises After Baird Upgrade to Outperform

Deere shares climbed 2.6% this week as Baird upgraded the stock from Neutral to Outperform and raised its price target to $800 from $640.

Baird analyst Mircea Dobre said Deere provides the cleanest setup given high exposure to North America row crop equipment demand. The analyst noted this is the stock that "gets bought first" when investors look for a fundamental inflection in agriculture, adding "but we think there is more to come in 2027."

Dobre pointed to early order program commentary indicating planters and sprayers up mid-single digits versus last year’s completed program, which provides initial visibility into a recovery in production and precision agriculture. The analyst said the wording suggests early order programs could end up even higher by the time they are completed.

Best Buy Shares Rise as Investors Continue to Digest Strong Q2 Results and Higher Outlook

Best Buy shares jumped 9.5% this week.

The most likely driver is continued positive reaction to Best Buy’s late-August quarterly report, which showed better sales and profit trends than earlier expectations and included a higher full-year outlook. This could also reflect support from the company’s dividend announcement and signs that demand in key electronics categories has improved.

Vertiv Jumps as It to Buy Utility Innovation Group for up to $2.6 Billion in Data Center Push

Vertiv Holdings shares jumped 9.1% this week.

Vertiv Holdings on Wednesday said it would acquire microgrid and advanced power controls company Utility Innovation Group ​for about $1.45 billion in cash, with an additional payment ‌of up to $1.15 billion if certain earnings targets are met.

Vertiv expects the deal to add capabilities that will help its customers speed up data center projects ​by securing power through both grid-connected and onsite energy sources.

Ulta Beauty Stock Gains as Investors Eye Strong Recent Performance

Ulta Beauty stock jumped 9% this week, as investors focus on the beauty retailer’s solid recent share performance and resilient fundamentals in a competitive cosmetics market.

The cosmetics retailer raised its annual sales and profit forecasts last week, ​betting that marketing and product assortment investments would drive demand as it ‌continues opening stores in the U.S.