Trey Thoelcke June 8, 2026 5 min read CAT SPY CVS GS Quick Read These three stocks crushed SPY's 24% return by pairing irreplaceable physical moats with AI-era growth vectors across data centers, dealmaking, and healthcare. Caterpillar surged 162% and Goldman Sachs climbed 75% over the past year, both posting four consecutive double-digit earnings beats fueled by AI-driven demand. CVS beat Q1 earnings by 16% as Aetna's operating income surged 53% and its Google Cloud AI platform now handles 83% of prior authorizations.
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Over the past year, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY) returned 24.37%, and the Dow tracker returned 20.22%. Three "old economy" Dow components have left both benchmarks in the dust, and they share more than just a ticker on the same index. What unites them: Hard-asset moats (industrial machinery and dealer networks, a global capital franchise, a national pharmacy and insurance footprint) B2B and cycle sensitivity (construction and power, dealmaking and trading, healthcare utilization and PBM volumes) Dominant market positions with steep scale barriers.
Each is also leveraging the AI buildout to drive recent earnings beats. Here is the countdown. 3. CVS Health CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) shares have advanced 52.1% over the past year to $95.93.
The Q1 2026 report delivered adjusted EPS of $2.57 against a $2.21 consensus, a 16.47% beat, on revenue of $100.43 billion. Aetna led the way, with Health Care Benefits adjusted operating income surging 52.6% to $3.04 billion as the medical benefit ratio improved to 84.6%. Management raised FY26 adjusted EPS guidance to $7.30 to $7.50 and launched Health100, a health tech subsidiary built on Google Cloud AI.
Aetna now processes 83% of prior authorizations in real time. The analyst consensus target sits at $103.04. Forward P/E of 13x keeps the valuation modest.
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