The Best- and Worst-Performing Stocks of the Last Decade

In a recent article I shared a list of the 30 best-performing stocks since 1980. One of the readers was kind enough to leave a comment and suggested that I should run the lists of different time periods and compare them to see which companies consistently show up on the list.

Unfortunately such data is very hard to find. I’ve tried to google the 30-best performing stocks since 1990 and since 2000 and I have been frustrated with the lack of findings.

Fortunately, I was able to use Bloomberg to generate the rankings of annualized returns for 3,000 U.S publicly traded stocks for the past 10 years (as of last month end, which is June 30). Hopefully, the readers may find the lists interesting.

Here is the top 30 list for the last decade:

And here is 31-61:

A few observations:

1. None of the companies on the since-1980 top-30 list made it to the top 60 list for the last decade.
2. Very few stocks on the top 30 list made it guru investors’ portfolios. Most notably, Transdigm (TDG, Financial) is owned by Wally Weitz, Priceline (PCLN, Financial) owned by Dave Rolfe and Ebix (EBIX, Financial) is owned by our lovely founder Charlie Tian.
3. Technology and biopharmaceutical companies dominated the list. Three of the FAANG stocks made the top 60: Netflix (NFLX, Financial), Amazon (AMZN, Financial) and Apple (AAPL). Google’s parent company Alphabet (GOOG) surprisingly only ranks No. 299 with a 10-year annualized return of “only” 13.5%. Equally impressive is the new biotech giants such as Regeneron (REGN, Financial) and Incyte (INCY, Financial) with mind-blowing 10-year CAGRs north of 35%.
4. For those of you who are curious about where Berkshire (BRK.A) falls in the list – Berkshire Hathaway ranks No. 737 with a 10-year annualized return of 8.8%.
5. What about some of Berkshire’s largest holdings?

• Wells Fargo: No. 914, 10-year annualized return of 7.454%.
• Coca Cola (KO, Financial): No. 740, 10-year annualized return of 8.746%.
• American Express: No 1240, 10-year annualized return of just 5%.

Among the worst performing stocks of the last decades are a few easily recognizable names:

• Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) – both suffered a negative 28% CAGR.
• J.C. Penney (JCP, Financial) – negative 23% CAGR.
• American International Group (AIG) – negative 24.75%.
• Sears holdings (SHLD) – negative 21.69%.

I hope you find the list and findings interesting. Meanwhile, I’ll see if more similar lists are publicly available, hopefully free of charge.