This week's best performers include two chip stocks along with Microsoft

Published Fri, Mar 17 20231:15 PM EDTUpdated Fri, Mar 17 20234:36 PM EDT

Wall Street is wrapping up a volatile week — but certain stocks managed to outperform the rest. The S & P 500 ended the week with a 1.43% gain, while the Nasdaq Composite added 4.4%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched lower by 0.15%. These mixed results come amid investor anxieties on contagion of a banking sector crisis. Following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank , financial stocks have taken a hard hit, particularly regional banks. Investors were further rattled by signs of instability at Credit Suisse and First Republic , driving down both shares 6.9%% and 32.8% on Friday, respectively. Using FactSet data, CNBC Pro screened for this week's top gainers as of Friday morning, and what analysts expect for them going forward. Tech giant Microsoft was one of the biggest S & P 500 winners this week, rallying 13.3% week to date as of Friday morning. Microsoft shares are within shouting distance of analysts' average price target for the next 12 months, with upside of about 1%. Nearly 7 out 10 analysts covering the stock rate it a buy. Similarly, chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia outperformed this week but may be getting ahead of themselves. AMD had the largest gains this week out of all S & P 500 stocks, up 17.8% week-to-date. AMD is on pace for its best week since 2020. However, shares are already more than 5% higher than their average price target. Nvidia shares have also run ahead of their average price target. Nevertheless, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares to overweight from equal weight on Thursday, citing artificial intelligence developments as tailwinds to growth. The firm raised its price target on shares to $304 from $255, implying 19% upside from Thursday's close. Meta and Alphabet shares also made the list of this week's biggest gainers, rising 12% and 13%, respectively. Analysts anticipate Alphabet's stock having 22.2% upside from here. UBS reiterated its buy rating for Alphabet shares , saying that it sees "cost risk around the integration of generative AI into Google search results as manageable." Illumina and Insulet were the two health-care companies that beat the market this week. Illumina shares jumped 15.3% week to date as billionaire activist Carl Icahn prepared for a proxy fight at Illumina . Icahn is arguing the company cost its shareholders about $50 billion after pushing through its acquisition of GRAIL in August 2021. To be sure, analysts are mixed on Illumina, with only 34.8% analysts rating it a buy. Shares are estimated to gain more than 5% during the next 12 months. —CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.