As the markets creep higher, some stocks have blazed past the rest to score massive gains for the year.
A handful of stocks, including Netflix, TripAdvisor and Chipotle, now trade at least 20 percent above their 200-day moving average. But only some are worthy of their parabolic rise, according to Miller Tabak equity strategist Matt Maley.
Intel's rise looks like the beginning of something great, he said.
"This stock made a very nice double bottom back in January and February, and since then, it's made a series of higher lows and higher highs with a nice higher high just this past week," Maley told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Thursday.
Intel shares on April 27 reached their highest level since the early 2000s dot-com bust, a level it neared again on Thursday. Intel now sits 19 percent higher for the year, nearly double the gain in the XLK technology ETF. It trades 23 percent above a rising 200-day moving average.
Mark Tepper, founder and president of Strategic Wealth Partners, agrees with Maley's bullish call on Intel.
Intel has "an attractive valuation trading at a forward P-E of around 14. We've got a $60 price target on it," Tepper said Thursday on "Trading Nation." "When you look at big data and cloud computing, that's just a great space to be in, and we're seeing low double-digit growth there, so I love that one."
Tepper's $60 price target puts him in line with the average targets on the Street. That level implies 9 percent upside from its current trade.
Maley sees a similar lasting rise in shares of Salesforce.com.
"That stock made a nice double bottom even further back, back at the end of 2016, so it's been making a series of higher lows and higher highs for an even longer period of time [than Intel]," said Maley. "It's also made a nice higher high just in the last week so these are new all-time highs."
Salesforce shares reached an all-time intraday high of $131 on Thursday following a year-to-date increase of 27 percent. It is the 11th best-performing stock on the XLK ETF this year and is 20 percent above a rising 200-day moving average.
Wall Street favorite Amazon has had a monumental year, and Tepper says the fundamentals case supports even more upside.
"Amazon is just completely crushing the other retailers," said Tepper. "It's just so tough to beat Amazon Prime on price, choice and convenience, and with these Amazon Prime members, they're just so much more loyal to spend double the amount that's being spent by the non-Prime members."
Amazon's best advantage against other companies is its pricing power, says Tepper. The e-commerce company recently increased the annual subscription fee to its Amazon Prime service by 20 percent.
"I highly doubt that that's going to turn any people away from signing up so it's basically free money," Tepper said.
Amazon's year-to-date rise has given a big boost to the consumer discretionary space. It has increased 37 percent in 2018, marking it as the fourth-best performer on the XLY consumer discretionary ETF. It trades 29 percent higher than its 200-day moving average.
