As we look back on the financial landscape of 2025, three companies have notably outpaced market performance: Micron Technology (MU), Robinhood Markets (HOOD), and Newmont Corporation (NEM). Analysts Alicia Alfiere, Tim Beyers, and Keith Speights provide an extensive review of these top performers, weighing the factors behind their success and exploring whether their momentum can persist into 2026.
Micron Technology: A Memory Chip Powerhouse Confronts High Expectations
Micron Technology, a leading manufacturer of memory chips critical for data processing and storage, experienced remarkable growth in 2025. Year-to-date, it has outperformed the market by approximately 143%. Projections for fiscal 2025 include revenue soaring nearly 49% to $37.4 billion and gross margins expanding beyond 40%. A significant contributor to this surge is the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) segment, where Micron has established market leadership. HBM technology involves stacking memory chips to create highly efficient ‘‘skyscraper’’ structures on motherboards, imperative for data center expansion and artificial intelligence (AI) deployments.
CEO Sanjay Mehrotra has stated that all HBM capacity is pre-sold for 2024 and 2025, with most of 2026's output already committed, reflecting solid demand. In fiscal Q4 2025, HBM revenue reached $2 billion, with an annualized run rate close to $8 billion. Moreover, the data center business accounts for 56% of total revenue, boasting 52% gross margins. The cloud memory unit surged 257%, evidencing a robust appetite for memory solutions.
Despite this impressive performance, valuation poses a challenge. Micron is trading at roughly 100 times price-to-free cash flow, indicating elevated market expectations. This premium valuation could limit stock appreciation in the near term, placing pressure on the company to deliver sustained growth swiftly.
Alfiere notes that while Micron has benefited substantially from AI-driven data center demand, the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry and capacity ramp-up timelines may temper short-term gains. She expresses skepticism about Micron outperforming the market again in 2026 due to these elevated expectations.
Conversely, Speights views Micron as an underrated player within AI infrastructure, underscoring its critical role as one of just three global HBM suppliers and the only U.S.-based company in that select group. He highlights the strategic advantage this provides amid complex trade environments. While he concedes that Micron is unlikely to replicate 2025's outsized returns, he projects that the company will continue to outpace the broader market in 2026, assuming the AI boom sustains and pricing power remains intact.
Robinhood Markets: A Rebellious Platform Expanding Horizons
Robinhood Markets emerged in 2025 as a standout in the brokerage sector, delivering a staggering 176% market outperformance. Initially renowned for pioneering zero-fee stock trading on mobile devices, the company has since diversified its offerings significantly. Today, it encompasses crypto assets, prediction markets including NFL prop bets and parlays, precious metals, and options trading. This broadening of products has attracted a diverse investor base, extending beyond traditional equity traders.
Key financial indicators underscore Robinhood's extensive growth: earnings per share surged over 259% in Q3 2025, total platform assets exceeded $333 billion, marking a 119% annual increase, and average assets per customer doubled to surpass $10,000. Additionally, cryptocurrency-related revenues expanded by 339%, illustrating its importance to the platform.
Robinhood's introduction of ‘‘Robinhood Legend’’ aims to engage high-value, active traders, signaling a strategic shift toward a more sophisticated clientele. However, the company's valuation remains lofty, and its revenue composition—approximately 57% tied to retail trader transactions, including equities, options, and crypto—introduces sensitivity to market fluctuations.
Speights cautions that Robinhood's exceptional 2025 results reflect a rare alignment of positive factors, coining the term ‘‘Yhprum's law’’ to describe its experience. While acknowledging smart strategic moves such as acquiring Bitstamp and expanding futures market offerings, he warns that replicating such success is unlikely. His outlook for 2026 is cautiously optimistic, suggesting potential market outperformance but contingent on favorable conditions in both stock and crypto markets.
Alfiere highlights the company's ongoing journey towards diversification to mitigate risks inherent in retail trading volatility. She characterizes Robinhood as ‘‘more than Schwab’’ due to its innovative features blending traditional brokerage with gaming elements, albeit with some reservations about the platform's seriousness. She views Robinhood as misunderstood by the market, recognizing the complexity in valuing such a dynamic business. Nonetheless, she anticipates underperformance in 2026, particularly if market volatility intensifies, although such a scenario could eventually make the stock more appealing at lower valuations.
Newmont Corporation: Golden Fortunes and Strategic Strength
Newmont Corporation, the world's preeminent gold miner headquartered in Colorado, also delivered robust results in 2025, outperforming the market by more than 143%. The realized price per ounce of gold climbed 41% year-over-year to $3,539, bolstering the company's financial position. A key highlight is Newmont's record-breaking free cash flow of $1.6 billion in Q3 2025, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of positive cash generation.
The company has leveraged its enhanced cash flow to retire debt aggressively, execute share buybacks, and implement cost-saving initiatives. Trading at approximately 17 times price-to-free cash flow, Newmont presents a reasonable valuation, especially considering potential upside during economic downturns when gold is traditionally sought after as a safe haven.
Alfiere notes Newmont's dual role as a gold giant and an underappreciated participant in copper mining, a metal vital for AI data center construction due to its electrical conductivity and heat management properties. Although copper contributes about 7% to Newmont's revenue, this exposure affirms the company's position in the evolving technological landscape.
Speights echoes this assessment, emphasizing Newmont's sensitivity to global macroeconomic and geopolitical factors. The company currently benefits from geopolitical uncertainty and a moderate economic growth environment. He expects these conditions to persist into 2026, likely supporting steady gold prices and enabling Newmont to continue outperforming the market, albeit with gains more modest than in 2025.
Conclusion
Each of the three highlighted companies has demonstrated unique strengths throughout 2025. Micron Technology capitalized on AI-driven memory demands amid tight supply, though faces high valuation hurdles. Robinhood Markets showcased expansive growth by diversifying its financial product suite, yet remains sensitive to market swings and valuation pressures. Newmont Corporation combined strong commodity prices with disciplined financial management to bolster shareholder value, poised to benefit further from continued geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Looking ahead, the path to continued market outperformance is subject to sector-specific dynamics and broader economic trends. Investors and analysts alike will watch closely how these factors unfold in 2026 to gauge whether these stocks can sustain their notable winning streak.