Q2 top stocks: Global retail investors buy the dip on UnitedHealth and Lululemon while holding out for healthcare sector recovery

 Global investors snapped up battered UnitedHealth and Lululemon shares in Q2 2025

• Investors held Him & Hers, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk pending healthcare recovery
• Applied Digital and BigBear.ai saw increase in holders as investors look for the next AI winners
• Romanian investors favored Rheinmetall, Berkshire Hathaway and Pepsi

Global retail investors bought up shares of UnitedHealth and Lululemon at a discount in Q2, as well as healthcare stocks in anticipation of the sector recovering in line with the broader market, according to the latest data from trading and investing platform eToro.

eToro looked at which companies saw the biggest proportionate change in holders quarter-on-quarter (table 1), while also looking at the 10 most held stocks on the platform (table 2 and 3) globally and within Romania.

Leading the global ‘top risers’ list by a big margin is UnitedHealth with a 148% increase in holders compared to Q1. As its stock price plunged 42% in Q2, retail investors bought the dip. America’s largest health insurer has been mired in crises this year, including the resignation of its  CEO, slashing its 2025 profit outlook, battles with the US justice department over Medicare fraud, and an attempted acquisition of a rival home health provider.

In second place on the ‘top risers’ list is Lululemon, which had a 43% quarter-on-quarter rise in holders. Lululemon’s share price was down 19% in Q2 and 37% since the start of the year. With a significant proportion of their products made in Asian countries, Lululemon risks being hit hard by US tariffs. Combined with a weaker US consumer, the athleisure brand cut its full-year earnings guidance in June, and a market selloff ensued.

Lale Akoner, Global Market Analyst at eToro, said: “The last quarter was anything but quiet for markets. We kicked off with the ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcement which sent global markets into a tailspin. Yet by the end of June, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 had staged impressive recoveries and reached new all-time highs.

 “Amidst this volatile backdrop, our latest top stocks data demonstrates the agility and resilience of retail investors. Rather than being put off by massive price drawdowns, they saw value in stocks like UnitedHealth and Lululemon. UnitedHealth is still the leading player in health insurance in the US, while Lululemon reflects investors’ faith that the demand for luxury goods will return. April 2025 will go down in history as one of the biggest ‘sales’ in the stock market ever, and those who had the conviction to buy and hold at that time are likely to be reaping rewards now.”

 Romanian investors favored Rheinmetall (+13%), Berkshire Hathaway (+10%) and Pepsi (+8%) in their investment choices, which were the top three risers within the country.

Bogdan Maioreanu, eToro market analyst for Romania, commented: “Romanian investors  paid attention to the EU ReArm Europe plan that will increase defense spending by 800 billion euros that is expected to boost revenues of European defense companies. Rheinmetall was a star this year as its stock price increased 234% year to date. They also stocked up on Berkshire Hathaway during its ‘April sale’ and Pepsi shares as their share prices fell over the course of the quarter.”

 Retail investors hold onto healthcare, diversify tech and AI holdings

Alongside UnitedHealth, healthcare and biotech companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific (39%), Hims & Hers Health (32%), Sanofi (29%) and Novo Nordisk (21%) featured prominently in the global top risers list. All had tumultuous second quarters. In particular, Hims & Hers’ share price tanked 32% after Novo Nordisk abruptly ended their Wegovy sales partnership, while Novo Nordisk has been struggling due to concerns about its weight loss drug pipeline.

 As tariffs threatened US tech megacaps, global retail investors looked for new AI winners. Applied Digital, the Nvidia-backed firm, saw a 42% rise in holders. Bigbear.ai, which provides AI solutions for government and defence, had a 39% jump in holders. Away from AI plays, Take Two Interactive’s holders rose (30%), as the delayed release of GTA 6 to 2026 drummed up more hype.

Lale Akoner added: “The healthcare industry has not yet rebounded like other sectors since global markets reached a bottom in April. In fact, based on the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund, US healthcare stocks are currently underperforming the S&P 500 by the largest margin in more than 24 years. This explains the numerous stocks related to healthcare and life sciences in the top risers list, as investors held onto them in the hopes of a broader sector recovery.

 “Investors also diversified away from tech megacaps due to uncertainties around US trade policy. This led to other tech and AI plays like Applied Digital, the Nvidia-backed data centre provider who signed a 15-year deal with cloud computing firm CoreWeave in June, and Bigbear.ai, which has won government contracts for defence-related projects. Both businesses are domestically focused and less exposed to global trade tensions.”

 Looking at  the ‘top fallers’ list, global retail investors took profit from the likes of medtech company TransMedics, Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco and cloud security firm Zscaler, who all made significant gains in Q2. Romanian individual investors took profit from tech: Microsoft (-11%) but also Coinbase (-8%).

There was little change in the top 10 most held stocks globally on eToro in Q2, apart from Alphabet and Nio swapping places, now in 6th and 7th place respectively. Nvidia, Tesla and Amazon have been the top three most held companies on eToro since the end of 2024, and there was minimal change in their respective holders quarter-on-quarter. For the Romanian investors (Table 3), the change was between the Romanian born unicorn UiPath that swapped up places with Microsoft, now in 5th and 6th place respectively.

 “Timing is everything in investing,” said Lale Akoner. “It’s reassuring to see that retail investors aren’t only opportunistically buying the dip, they’re also selling at the right time to realise their gains. With stocks like Oracle reaching a new all-time high recently, it makes sense that a significant proportion of investors closed their positions by the end of June.”

 Table 1: Shows which stocks have seen the biggest proportional increase and decrease in holders on the eToro platform globally quarter on quarter

Table 2: Shows stocks most widely held by eToro users globally and their position last quarter

Table 3: Shows stocks most widely held by eToro Romanian users and their position last quarter