These Are the 4 Hottest Stocks in the S&P 500 This Year -- and Only One Is In the "Magnificent Seven." Are They Still Buys?

The broader benchmark S&P 500 has ripped all year and is now up nearly 22%. The index is a bellwether for the entire market and includes 500 larger companies in many industries. Technically, the S&P 500 has more than 500 stocks because some companies have multiple classes of shares. With such a wide sample size, many stocks in the S&P 500 have performed worse than the broader index and many have performed better.

Here are the four hottest stocks in the S&P 500 so far this year, and believe it or not, only one is in the "Magnificent Seven." Can you still buy these stocks after such a good run?

1. Vistra Corp -- 224%

Utility stocks have had a bang-up year, as lower interest rates have led investors to gravitate toward dividend-paying stocks. However, something else has been fueling Vistra (NYSE: VST), the largest competitive power generator in the U.S. That, of course, is artificial intelligence. Interestingly, Vistra looks to be a potential "picks and shovels" trade for the AI sector, but in a very different way than semiconductors. AI is powered by data and data centers, which are very energy-intensive. Tech companies believe a good alternative could be to connect data centers to nuclear plants. Vistra owns four nuclear reactors after acquiring Energy Harbor in 2023.

2. Nvidia -- 172%

Investors shouldn't be surprised to see this name on the list, considering it's been arguably the most talked about ticker in the investing world. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the classic "picks and shovels" play on AI, designing chips that make AI possible. Nvidia's chips are used by some of the world's largest and most innovative tech companies, including OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Some analysts estimate that Nvidia's market share for the AI semiconductors that helped make ChatGPT technology possible is between 70% and 95%. Since the start of 2023, Nvidia's revenue and profits have grown like a weed.

Palantir -- 153%

Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) went public during the pandemic in 2020, and it's been quite the ride ever since, with the stock up almost 370%. What does Palantir do? You guessed it: AI. Palantir uses AI to help people and organizations analyze vast quantities of data in a user-friendly way that doesn't require them to learn some of the more complex languages and techniques at the core of AI.

Palantir has constructed platforms that use AI to manipulate and manage data. The company then builds applications atop these platforms so humans with no AI expertise can analyze this data. The company's largest client is the U.S. government, and it has gotten large contracts with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Army.