The S&P 500 has a new leader with nearly 80% gains YTD, and it's not what you think

Group 1 - Seagate Technology has become the top performer in the S&P 500 for 2025, with a stock surge of 76.04% year-to-date, reaching a 52-week high of $151.94 [1] - The consensus rating among 16 analysts for Seagate is "Moderate Buy," with 11 buy recommendations and 5 holds, and no sell ratings [2] - Seagate's current share price of $151.94 is 11.98% above the average analyst price target of $127.67, with expectations of earnings of $2.17 per share for fiscal Q4 2025, indicating a 149.4% growth from the previous year [4] Group 2 - The company's growth is driven by increasing demand for data storage solutions, benefiting from its position as the second-largest U.S. manufacturer of hard disk drives, with a market valuation of $30.8 billion [5] - Seagate's momentum began with a strong Q3 earnings report, where it reported earnings of $1.90 per share and $2.2 billion in revenue, exceeding estimates, and guided for Q4 revenue of $2.4 billion and earnings of $2.40 per share [6] - The sustained investor interest is attributed to strong demand for mass capacity storage, AI-integrated devices, and the Windows 11 refresh cycle [6]