Two stocks on Josh Brown’s list have been huge winners. How he’s trading them now
(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh โ One of the hardest things to do in this business is manage a big winner. Getting in is the easy part. Staying in, knowing when to tighten the reins, knowing when to give it room, that is the real work. Today we are updating risk management on two of the biggest winners we have had. Both APH and DELL have been on this list long enough that the levels we set when we first wrote them up are ancient history. The stock prices are in completely different places now. So are the stops. That is how it is supposed to work. As a stock climbs, your reference points climb with it. You are not managing the position you bought. You are managing the position you have today, at today’s price, with today’s chart in front of you. Sean’s got the details on both companies below. I’ll be back with the new levels to be aware of for each. As of Aug 31, there are 220 names on The Best Stocks in the Market list. Top sector ranking: Top industries: Top 5 best stocks by relative strength: Sector spotlight Amphenol Corp. (APH) Sean โ We spotlighted Amphenol on June 20, 2025, off a quarter with record sales of $4.8 billion and 134% organic growth in its IT datacom segment. Since that piece, the stock has returned 70% on a total return basis against 31% for the S & P 500 and 37% for the Nasdaq 100. We’ll take it. Q2, reported July 29, was the biggest quarter in the company’s 94-year history. Record sales of $8.8 billion, up 55% and up 30% organically. Record orders were reported of $10.7 billion for a 1.2 book-to-bill, and every end market was positive. Adjusted EPS of $1.35 grew 67% year over year and adjusted operating margin hit a record 29.8%, up 420 basis points year over year. The IT datacom vertical was 33% of sales when we wrote it up. It’s 43% now, and it grew 63% organically last quarter, this company is on fire (in the best way possible). Looking forward, management guided Q3 to $9.3 billion-$9.4 billion in sales and $1.40-$1.42 in adjusted EPS, both well ahead of consensus. The board also approved a 2-for-1 split on Aug. 5 with new shares distributed Sept. 2, so the quoted price halves later this week. APH trades around 30x this year’s consensus EPS of $5.25, which itself is up 57% year over year. CEO Adam Norwitt said the one consistent thing he hears from customers is that they need more of everything. For now, the AI builders will keep dancing. Josh โ One housekeeping note before we get into the chart: As Sean mentioned, Amphenol approved a 2-for-1 stock split on August 5 with new shares distributed Sept. 2. All of the price levels below will be cut in half after Wednesday. Keep that in mind when you set your alerts. It might not be a bad idea to standby, let the split occur and then take a look when the dust settles. But many of you took this trade with us awhile back so we’re updating the risk management. Amphenol has been in a long uptrend but the last few months have been a real test. The stock ran to $175 in the summer and has since pulled back to $161, sitting right on top of the rising 50-day. The 200-day is at $145 and catching up. What you want to see here is the 50-day hold and the stock find its footing in this zone. The trend is still pointed in the right direction. The moving averages are still rising. But this is a stock that needs to prove itself right here. RSI is 47. That is a full reset to neutral after what was an extended run. The momentum indicator has done exactly what you want it to do during a healthy consolidation: it came in, it cooled off, it did not collapse. At 47, there is room for this stock to turn back up without fighting an overbought reading. Nothing broken here. Traders can use the 50-day at $158 as their reference. The stock is leaning on it right now and a weekly close below it opens up a test of the 200-day. That would be a different conversation. Investors can anchor to the 200-day at $145, which has been rising steadily all year and marks the longer-term trend. Below that on a closing basis and the uptrend that has been in place since last fall has broken down. Remember: cut both numbers in half after Wednesday when the split takes effect. Dell Technologies, Inc. (DELL) Sean โ Dell is the rare name we’ve written up twice. First on Sept. 29, 2025, after which it rolled over, lost its 200-day before Thanksgiving and came off the list for three months. We wrote it up again on March 26 following a fresh breakout to 52-week highs, with FY27 revenue guided to $138-$142B, the stock at a forward 12x multiple and a 0.7 PEG. The stock has returned 163% since March 26 and 248% since the original September write-up, against 20% and 17% for the S & P 500 over those windows. It’s up 268% year to date. My keyboard is scorching just typing these numbers. Q1 FY27 is the quarter that repriced the stock. Revenue of $43.8 billion grew 88%, AI-optimized server revenue grew 757% to $16.1 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $4.86 was up 214%. Dell booked another $24.4 billion of AI orders and still exited the quarter with a record $51.3 billion backlog. The AI customer count passed 5,000, up 50% in six months. These numbers are all insane to think about. This company is transforming in front of us. Management raised FY27 revenue guidance to $165-$169 billion from $138-$142 billion and now expects $60 billion of AI server revenue instead of $50 billion, with non-GAAP EPS of $17.90, up 74%. The catch is margin. Gross margin fell to 17.8% from 21.1% a year ago as memory prices climbed, and COO Jeff Clarke has said demand continues to exceed supply with memory as the primary constraint. This research makes the AI build-out seem much more logical. Companies are investing, supply is low and stock prices are high, these companies are evidence of that. At $460 the stock trades at 25.7x the FY27 guide, roughly double the multiple we wrote about in March. Q2 earnings drop after the close on Tuesday, with the street at $4.92 in EPS on $44.5 billion in revenue. Josh โ Dell has been one of the great technical stories of the last year. We want to see if that overhead resistance at $500 can be broken. If you’re long the stock since we wrote it up, you’re staying long. If you want to play with new money and no current position, I’d buy some now and hold some dry powder to add on a breakout. The stock spent the fall of 2025 grinding higher along the rising 50-day, then broke into a completely different gear in the spring. The move from the March breakout to the May highs near $500 was relentless. Since then the stock has been digesting those gains in a wide range, roughly $400 to $500, with the 50-day now rising at $433 and the 200-day far below at $245. Price is sitting just above the 50-day right now, which makes this an interesting moment on the chart. The trend is intact. The question is whether the 50-day holds. RSI is 53. After a run like this one, that is a complete reset to neutral. The indicator was almost certainly deep into overbought territory during the May surge. The fact that it has worked its way back to 53 without the price falling apart tells you this is digestion, not distribution. Constructive. One thing you need to know before we talk about stop loss orders is that this name has curled up above support at a pivotal moment. Dell reports Q2 earnings after the close tomorrow, September 1. Whatever levels we give you here, a big move in either direction overnight can render them irrelevant instantly. Keep that in mind. For traders, the 50-day at $433 is the line. The stock has been leaning on it during this consolidation and a weekly close below it would tell you the sellers are in control heading into the next leg. Investors can use $400 as their floor, the lower bound of the range that has contained this stock since May. Below $400 on a closing basis and the consolidation has broken down in the wrong direction. DISCLOSURES: We currently own shares of APH and DELL for clients in our Porterhouse strategy. All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL’S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. Click here for the full disclaimer.
