SEEING RED? You might be if you've been watching the market's major indexes. The Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled this week to their lowest closing levels since 1997, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday flirted with the intraday low set last September, just after the terrorist attacks.
In search of better news, we decided to look for the market's best five-year returns. The biggest zoomers were found among growth-oriented retailers and tech (yes, tech) stocks. Some brought their investors quadruple-digit returns.
Among the companies worth at least $500 million, Chico's FAS (CHS) topped the charts with an eye-popping 2,713% return. In other words, if you bought 100 shares of Chico's for $488 five years ago, your investment would now be worth $13,655, after adjusting for splits. Chico's comfortable clothing for no-longer-young women has been one of the great retail success stories of the decade.
Homebuilder NVR (NVR) came in at a distant, but still impressive, second, rewarding five-year investors with a 1,471% return. And it's still on a roll. This week, NVR reported 46% earnings growth for its second quarter.
Note that eight of the top 10 total returns (listed in the first table below) have lost value this year. And some of the drops have been steep. Case in point: Electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY), which is down 35% in 2002. Nevertheless, a five-year investment in Best Buy has appreciated 1,379%. Likewise, Emulex (ELX), which makes storage networking gear, is down 40% for the year. Step back, though, and you'll see that its shares have soared 1,094% since 1997.
Rounding out the top five is another rapidly growing women's apparel retailer, Christopher & Banks (CBK). This week, its stock moved from the Nasdaq to the more-esteemed New York Stock Exchange. C&B Chief Executive William Prange rang the NYSE's opening bell on Wednesday to celebrate.
Where were some of the worst places to stash your cash during the last five years? Telecom equipment and telecom services, to be blunt. But Elan (ELN) really takes the cake. The Irish pharmaceutical company, whose accounting practices are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, has punished investors with a 91% five-year loss. Losses were also staggeringly steep at Rite Aid (RAD) and Service Corp. International (SRV), too, as you'll see in the second table below. (Note that we screened for losers that are still worth at least $500 million. That market cap was the minimum for each of our seven tables below.)
As always, we also fished for the week's winners and losers, with data current as of Thursday's close. This week, Nextel (NXTL) soared after reporting its first quarterly profit ever. The crash of the week came from computer vendor Insight Enterprises (NSIT), whose shares plummeted 47% Thursday after it issued a profit warning and announced the resignation of two top executives in its U.K. operations.
Year-to-date, gold stocks continue to outshine the rest of the market. The big losers of 2002 include the aforementioned Elan, generic-drug maker Sepracor (SEPR) and rejected drug maker ImClone Systems (IMCL
In search of better news, we decided to look for the market's best five-year returns. The biggest zoomers were found among growth-oriented retailers and tech (yes, tech) stocks. Some brought their investors quadruple-digit returns.
Among the companies worth at least $500 million, Chico's FAS (CHS) topped the charts with an eye-popping 2,713% return. In other words, if you bought 100 shares of Chico's for $488 five years ago, your investment would now be worth $13,655, after adjusting for splits. Chico's comfortable clothing for no-longer-young women has been one of the great retail success stories of the decade.
Homebuilder NVR (NVR) came in at a distant, but still impressive, second, rewarding five-year investors with a 1,471% return. And it's still on a roll. This week, NVR reported 46% earnings growth for its second quarter.
Note that eight of the top 10 total returns (listed in the first table below) have lost value this year. And some of the drops have been steep. Case in point: Electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY), which is down 35% in 2002. Nevertheless, a five-year investment in Best Buy has appreciated 1,379%. Likewise, Emulex (ELX), which makes storage networking gear, is down 40% for the year. Step back, though, and you'll see that its shares have soared 1,094% since 1997.
Rounding out the top five is another rapidly growing women's apparel retailer, Christopher & Banks (CBK). This week, its stock moved from the Nasdaq to the more-esteemed New York Stock Exchange. C&B Chief Executive William Prange rang the NYSE's opening bell on Wednesday to celebrate.
Where were some of the worst places to stash your cash during the last five years? Telecom equipment and telecom services, to be blunt. But Elan (ELN) really takes the cake. The Irish pharmaceutical company, whose accounting practices are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, has punished investors with a 91% five-year loss. Losses were also staggeringly steep at Rite Aid (RAD) and Service Corp. International (SRV), too, as you'll see in the second table below. (Note that we screened for losers that are still worth at least $500 million. That market cap was the minimum for each of our seven tables below.)
As always, we also fished for the week's winners and losers, with data current as of Thursday's close. This week, Nextel (NXTL) soared after reporting its first quarterly profit ever. The crash of the week came from computer vendor Insight Enterprises (NSIT), whose shares plummeted 47% Thursday after it issued a profit warning and announced the resignation of two top executives in its U.K. operations.
Year-to-date, gold stocks continue to outshine the rest of the market. The big losers of 2002 include the aforementioned Elan, generic-drug maker Sepracor (SEPR) and rejected drug maker ImClone Systems (IMCL
