While most of us were arguing about pumpkin spice season, some stocks were quietly having the time of their lives. The S&P 500 had a solid 7.8% quarter, but these three companies decided to show off and absolutely crush it.
## Western Digital: The Storage King That Doubled Your Money
Remember when everyone said “data is the new oil”? Well, Western Digital (WDC) took that literally and struck black gold with a **104% return** in Q3. That’s not a typo – they literally doubled investors’ money in three months.
Here’s the thing: AI needs somewhere to store all those cat videos it’s learning from, and Western Digital makes the hard drives that do exactly that. They’ve got about 80% of the data center storage market locked up with their buddy Seagate, which is basically like owning the only two gas stations on a very busy highway.
The stock jumped 47% in September alone and is up 199% for the year. At a forward P/E of just 19, it’s not even expensive by today’s standards. Sometimes the boring companies that make the stuff nobody thinks about end up being the biggest winners.
## AppLovin: The New Kid Making Bank
AppLovin (APP) is so new to the S&P 500 that it still has that new-member smell, but it’s already flexing with a **98% quarterly return**. They’re the people who figure out which mobile game ads to show you – and apparently, they’re really, really good at it.
Their secret sauce? AI that matches advertisers with the right eyeballs. In Q2, they turned that into 77% revenue growth and 164% profit growth. They even sold off their gaming business for $400 million to focus on what they do best: making money from other people’s games.
Bank of America just slapped an $860 price target on the stock, which is trading around $683. Sure, the P/E is high, but when you’re growing this fast, traditional metrics start looking quaint.
## Warner Bros Discovery: The Comeback Kid
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) had a **75% quarter**, which is impressive for a company that seemed to be having an identity crisis not too long ago. They figured out the solution: split the company in two and let everyone speculate about who might buy the pieces.
The movie/streaming side is now separate from the TV business, which makes about as much sense as it sounds in 2025. But here’s the kicker – rumors are swirling that bigger fish want to gobble up parts of the company, and nothing makes a stock price jump quite like takeover speculation.
Sometimes the best investment strategy is buying companies that other companies want to buy. WBD is up 81% for the year, proving that sometimes corporate drama pays off.
**The Bottom Line:** While everyone was obsessing over the usual suspects, these three companies quietly delivered the kind of returns that make you wish you’d paid more attention to the “boring” parts of the market. Data storage, mobile ads, and media consolidation – not exactly cocktail party conversation, but apparently, that’s where the money was hiding.