The stock market trended higher in August. The popular S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index gained 1.9% last month. As of September 10, it has seen a total return of 20.6% in 52 weeks.
The top three performers among the 503 S&P 500 components took very different routes to the top. Let’s take a quick look.
Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) had three things working in its favor last month: