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The 20 Best-Performing Stocks of the Decade

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The 20 Best-Performing Stocks of the Last Decade

Hindsight is 20/20. It can be incredibly difficult to pick the “next big stock” in the moment, but looking back gives us clarity on where we could have reaped the highest rewards. While some of the decade’s chart-toppers—like Netflix and Amazon—are household names, other stocks may come as a surprise.

Today’s visualization reveals the best-performing stocks over the last 10 years, and shows how much an initial $100 investment would be worth today.

The Shortlist

To compile the list, MarketWatch reviewed the current S&P 500 constituents and excluded any stocks that have traded in their present form for less than 10 years. The remaining companies were sorted based on their total return, with reinvested dividends, from December 31, 2009 to December 5, 2019.

So, which stocks come out on top? Here’s a full list of the top 20, organized by ranking:

RankCompanyTickerFinal Value of $100 InvestmentS&P 500 Sector
1Netflix Inc.NASDAQ: NFLX$3,867Communication Services
2MarketAxess Holdings Inc.NASDAQ: MKTX$3,282Financials
3Abiomed Inc.NASDAQ: ABMD$2,221Health Care
4TransDigm Group Inc.NYSE: TDG$2,165Industrials
5Broadcom Inc.NASDAQ: AVGO$2,019Information Technology
6Align Technology Inc.NASDAQ: ALGN$1,558Health Care
7United Rentals Inc.NYSE: URI$1,534Industrials
8Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.NASDAQ: REGN$1,530Health Care
9Ulta Beauty Inc.NASDAQ: ULTA$1,333Consumer Discretionary
10Amazon.com Inc.NASDAQ: AMZN$1,309Consumer Discretionary
11Extra Space Storage Inc.NYSE: EXR$1,266Real Estate
12Constellation Brands Inc. Class ANYSE: STZ$1,224Consumer Staples
13Nvidia Corp.NASDAQ: NVDA$1,217Information Technology
14Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.NASDAQ: TTWO$1,214Information Technology
15Ross Stores Inc.NASDAQ: ROST$1,181Consumer Discretionary
16Fortinet Inc.NASDAQ: FTNT$1,179Information Technology
17Mastercard Inc. Class ANYSE: MA$1,178Information Technology
18Charter Communications Inc. Class ANASDAQ: CHTR$1,177Communication Services
19O'Reilly Automotive Inc.NASDAQ: ORLY$1,160Consumer Discretionary
20Cintas Corp.NASDAQ: CTAS$1,153Industrials

Note: The final value of a $100 investment is based on the total return, with reinvested dividends, from December 31, 2009 – December 5, 2019.

In comparison, $100 in the S&P 500 index overall would have amounted to $344 over the same time period. Let’s take a closer look at these strong performers.

Household Names

Streaming giant Netflix takes the #1 spot. The company earned a staggering 3,767% return over the last ten years, meaning an initial $100 investment would now be worth almost $4,000. However, it remains to be seen whether Netflix’s first mover advantage will remain strong with new competitors entering the space.

One such rival, Amazon, takes its spot at #10 in the best-performing stocks of the decade. From its humble roots as an online bookseller, the company has transformed into an ecommerce leader. CEO Jeff Bezos credits Amazon’s admirable success to three key customer-centric factors: listen, invent, and personalize.

At #12 on the list, Constellation Brands—owner of several alcohol brands such as Corona—is also no stranger to invention. The company is protecting itself against cannabidiol (CBD) disruption with a $5 billion dollar investment in Canopy Growth, and future plans to create its own CBD-infused beverages.

Other well-known names on the top 20 list include discount department store chain Ross Stores (#15) and the credit card company Mastercard (#17), with the latter benefiting from an oligopoly in the industry.

Flying Under the Radar

Apart from the names you’d expect to see, there are also some lesser-known companies that made the list.

Well established among institutional investors and broker-dealers, MarketAxess Holdings takes the #2 spot. The fintech company operates a global electronic bond trading platform, vastly improving the process for investors who traditionally traded bonds “over-the-counter”.

In third place, healthcare technology company Abiomed develops medical devices that provide circulatory support. The company’s Impella® device—the world’s smallest heart pump— has been used to treat over 50,000 U.S. patients.

Fourth place company Transdigm Group gains its stronghold by developing specialized products for the aerospace industry. It has a strong acquisition strategy as well, having acquired over 60 businesses since its formation in 1993.

A Sector View

If we organize the top 20 by sector, information technology stocks appear in the list most frequently with five companies, followed by consumer discretionary (4 companies), and industrials and healthcare (3 companies each).

best-performing stocks

Sectors with less representation in the top 20 are communication services (2 companies), as well as consumer staples, financials, and real estate (1 company each).

The Bottom Line

While these stocks have performed extremely well over the last decade, they are not necessarily the best portfolio additions today. Some companies may have become overvalued, or be facing new competition in their industry—as is the case with Netflix. It’s best to consider all current information when building a portfolio.

However, the top 20 stocks do demonstrate the power of a buy-and-hold strategy. If you’re lucky enough to identify a winner early on, it’s possible to simply sit back and let your dollars grow.

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Animated Chart: The S&P 500 in 2023 So Far

Track the S&P 500’s performance in 2023, including all 500 companies, and the sectors they belong to, in this animated video.

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A visualization of the S&P 500 performance on March 1, 2023.

The S&P 500’s Performance in 2023 Q1

With one quarter of 2023 in the books, how has the S&P 500 performed so far?

The index had a tumultuous 2022, ending the year down 18%, its worst performance since 2008. But so far, despite dealing with tight monetary conditions and an unexpected banking crisis, the S&P 500 has promptly started to rebound.

The above animation from Jan Varsava shows the stock performance of each company on the S&P 500, categorized by sector.

Biggest Gainers on the S&P 500

The S&P 500 increased 7.5% during the first quarter of 2023. Though it was led by a few big outperformers, more than half of the stocks on the index closed above their end-of-December prices.

Here are the top 30 biggest gainers on the index from January 1 to March 31, 2023.

RankCompany3-Month Return
1Nvidia90.1%
2Meta (Facebook)76.1%
3Tesla68.4%
4Warner Bros. Discovery59.3%
5Align Technology58.4%
6AMD51.3%
7Salesforce50.7%
8West Pharmaceuticals47.3%
9General Electric46.3%
10Catalent46.0%
11First Solar45.2%
12Monolithic Power Systems41.8%
13MarketAxess Holdings40.6%
14GE Healthcare Tech40.5%
15Arista Networks38.3%
16ANSYS Inc.37.8%
17Fortinet Inc.35.9%
18Wynn Resorts35.7%
19Paramount Global33.8%
20FedEx Corp32.7%
21MGM Resorts32.5%
22Royal Caribbean Group32.1%
23ON Semiconductor Corp32.0%
24Booking Holdings31.6%
25Cadence Design Systems30.8%
26Skyworks Solutions30.2%
27Pulte Group28.4%
28Seagate Technology27.1%
29Apple27.1%
30Lam Research26.6%

Nvidia shares gained the most of all the companies on the S&P 500 in Q1 2023, posting a staggering 90% return over three months.

As the world’s largest chipmaker by market cap, Nvidia gained from both strong earnings and semiconductor industry performance. It also benefited from the rising prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) through software like ChatGPT.

Meanwhile, other tech giants Apple and Microsoft gained 27% and 21% respectively over the same time period.

Tech Leads Returns by Sector

The technology sector as a whole was the best performing sectoral index thanks to these big moves, up 21.7% at the end of March.

Sector3-Month Return
Technology21.65%
Consumer Services21.27%
Consumer Discretionary16.60%
Materials4.29%
Industrials 3.47%
Real Estate1.95%
Consumer Staples0.72%
Utilities-3.24%
Health Care-4.31%
Energy-4.37%
Financials -5.56%
S&P 5007.5%

Shares of other tech-adjacent companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Tesla—listed on the S&P 500 under the categories of communication services and consumer discretionary—also had a strong start to the year and lifted their respective sectors.

Meta in particular is up 76% in Q1 2023, continuing its rebound after falling to an eight-year low in November 2022 on the back of better-than-expected fourth quarter results and share buybacks.

Biggest Losers on the S&P 500

On the other side of the S&P 500, the financial sector was rocked by sudden collapses.

Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Financial Group shares lost the most ground in the first quarter, after both banks collapsed, shedding nearly all of their value in a matter of 30 days.

In fact, seven of the 10 worst performers on the index to start 2023 are banks or financial companies. The visualization shows the ripple effect on the market after the collapse of regional banks in March, and the ensuing rout driving the entire sector down 5.6% year-to-date.

Here are the top 30 biggest losers on the index from January 1 to March 31, 2023.

RankCompany3-Month Return
1Signature Bank-99.8%
2Silicon Valley Financial Group-99.6%
3First Republic Bank-88.5%
4Lumen Technologies-49.2%
5Zions Bancorporation-38.6%
6Charles Schwab Corp-36.9%
7Comerica Incorporated-33.9%
8DISH Network-33.5%
9KeyCorp-27.3%
10Lincoln National Corp-25.8%
11Centene Corporation-22.9%
12Cigna Group-22.5%
13APA Corporation-22.3%
14Citizens Financial Group-22.1%
15Enphase Energy Inc.-20.6%
16Baxter International Inc.-19.9%
17Truist Financial Corporation-19.9%
18American International Group-19.8%
19CVS Health Corporation-19.7%
20Pfizer-19.6%
21Gen Digital-19.5%
22MetLife-19.4%
23Huntington Bancshares-19.4%
24Fidelity National-19.3%
25Halliburton Company-19.2%
26Molina Healthcare-19.0%
27PNC Financial Services-18.8%
28Boston Properties-18.4%
29Fifth Third Bancorp-17.8%
30Allstate Corporation-17.7%

Despite the tight monetary landscape, traditionally defensive sectors like energy, consumer staples, and healthcare also underperformed the broader index. This is a reversal from market trends seen in 2022.

Investment Trends to Watch for in 2023

Experts predict a pause in U.S. interest rate hikes “sometime in 2023” but it’s unclear when (or at what level) the pause will take place given persistent inflation in the economy.

However, if interest rates level off in 2023, it could be a key momentum maker for the S&P 500. As Barron’s points out, the index tends to rise after hikes are paused.

Meanwhile, the current tumult in the financial sector is fanning the flames of recessionary fears. How effectively regulators manage the crisis might be the story of the year.

Finally, as we have seen in 2023 so far, investor interest in AI has sent tech stocks soaring. Is this a quick fad, or an overarching trend for the year?

Curious about what started the upheaval in the financial sector? Check out Timeline: The Shocking Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank for the backstory.
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