So what’s a potential leader? I could write about some of the (very few) stocks that are hitting new peaks–only 14 stocks hit new peaks on the NYSE and Nasdaq on December 18, for instance–but instead, I’m highlighting a company with huge growth, a big story, and whose stock is in the sixth week of building a good-looking base.

It’s Myriad Genetics (MYGN), which I know has been mentioned in past Cabot Wealth Advisories. To review, the company is the leader in the new field of cancer predisposition testing. It has five tests on the market that tell patients whether their genes make it more likely that they’ll get various types of cancer. During the past few quarters, revenues from these tests have risen at a 50% annual clip, and there’s no sign of that slowing down.

The company also has a pharmaceutical division, but it’s going to spin that off sometime in 2009. That should be a big positive, as the drug development division carries good potential, but also big-time costs. Once the cancer predisposition testing division is on its own, profits are sure to soar.

Not that they’ve been doing badly. Revenues rose 53% to $73.7 million in the third quarter, while earnings soared to 30 cents a share, up from a loss of 18 cents the year-ago quarter. Better yet, analysts expect the bottom line to jump 40% in each of the next two fiscal years. The stock itself actually hit new peaks in early November, despite the market’s weakness, and is now building a new launching pad.

In fact, the past few weeks have successfully taken the stock out of the public’s eye, and while it may need a bit more time to set up, I think it’s primed for a breakout early next year. If the market’s nascent uptrend can persist, I think MYGN can be a big winner.