Best stocks of August 2026
The month's leaders by monthly return · Final standings
From the July 31, 2026 close to the August 31, 2026 close, Moderna (MRNA) gained +156.00% — the best August 2026 run in the S&P 500. These are the month's final standings.
| Rank | Company | Ticker | Price | Month return | YTD at month end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moderna | MRNA | $140.34 | +156.00% | +375.89% |
| 2 | Palantir Technologies | PLTR | $186.38 | +51.45% | +4.86% |
| 3 | Veeva Systems | VEEV | $285.69 | +40.20% | +27.98% |
| 4 | Salesforce | CRM | $257.09 | +39.95% | -2.29% |
| 5 | Paramount Skydance Corporation | PSKY | $10.86 | +37.12% | -17.77% |
| 6 | Newmont | NEM | $125.80 | +34.52% | +26.80% |
| 7 | ServiceNow | NOW | $147.99 | +33.05% | -3.39% |
| 8 | Supermicro | SMCI | $37.28 | +31.27% | +27.37% |
| 9 | Gartner | IT | $198.11 | +31.18% | -21.47% |
| 10 | Sandisk | SNDK | $1,566.70 | +28.96% | +560.00% |
| 11 | Coinbase | COIN | $188.12 | +28.62% | -16.81% |
| 12 | Lumentum | LITE | $914.76 | +28.13% | +148.18% |
| 13 | Charles River Laboratories | CRL | $288.24 | +23.97% | +44.50% |
| 14 | Workday, Inc. | WDAY | $197.45 | +23.14% | -8.07% |
| 15 | Estée Lauder Companies (The) | EL | $102.30 | +22.34% | -1.29% |
| 16 | Leidos | LDOS | $139.76 | +21.29% | -21.81% |
| 17 | Schlumberger | SLB | $59.79 | +21.20% | +58.34% |
| 18 | Robinhood Markets | HOOD | $104.81 | +21.08% | -7.33% |
| 19 | CrowdStrike | CRWD | $231.00 | +21.03% | +97.12% |
| 20 | Freeport-McMoRan | FCX | $75.74 | +20.93% | +50.19% |
| 21 | Airbnb | ABNB | $183.22 | +20.92% | +35.00% |
| 22 | Everpure | P | $92.95 | +20.45% | +38.71% |
| 23 | Zebra Technologies | ZBRA | $353.55 | +20.33% | +45.60% |
| 24 | Tyler Technologies | TYL | $372.22 | +20.23% | -18.00% |
| 25 | FactSet | FDS | $313.55 | +19.58% | +9.55% |
New in 2026
No new-in-2026 S&P 500 additions with price history yet. The 2026 S&P 500 additions (FDXF and HONA, both 2026 spin-offs) have no December 31, 2025 price, so they cannot be measured on a genuine year-to-date basis — and are excluded rather than ranked on invented data. When a 2026 addition with a full price history appears, it will be listed here.
August 2026 return measured from the last close before the 1st to the last close of the month across S&P 500 constituents with usable monthly price data. Stocks without a genuine pre-month price (e.g. 2026 spin-offs) are excluded; prices adjusted for splits and dividends. Source: Yahoo Finance.
← Full S&P 500 YTD leaderboardFor informational purposes only — not financial advice.