The Best of the Best: Top Performing Stock of the Past 30 Years

Lately I have been contemplating what makes a company great. What are the building blocks that set a stock up for truly phenomenal long-term performance? Can we, as investors, find a trail of crumbs that lead us to the proverbial “great” company? A simple construct, but a lot of work for my feeble brain.

A lot of people much smarter than myself have tackled this topic, spent lifetimes researching it, and written volumes on the subject. I am not going to break any new ground. Rather, I simply want to share my starting point - a list of the top performing stocks over the last 30, 25, and 20 years (criteria: end date of 12/31/2013, traded on a U.S. exchange, ending market cap greater than $2 billion).

By going through some old Value Line manuals, I've been able to step back in “real” time and see what was happening and how the company was performing before it began its phenomenal run. It has been an enlightening experience (hint:  as Buffett/Greenblatt/(insert other great value investor) has said, ROIC really is important).

Hopefully you too can get some use out of the list. If you have thoughts or ideas on what made these companies great, or want to discuss them in more detail, please feel free to email (email on the right).

Rank	30 Yrs.	Ann. Return	25 Yrs.	Ann. Return	20 Yrs.	Ann. Return
1	Amgen Inc.	25.20%	Brown & Brown	27.10%	Monster Bev	35.40%
2	Danaher Corp.	23.70%	Drew Industries	25.30%	USANA Health	33.80%
3	Kansas City Sthrn	22.70%	Kansas City Sthrn	24.50%	Biogen Idec Inc.	33.80%
4	HollyFrontier Co.	21.70%	UnitedHealth Grp	24.00%	Keurig Gr Mtn	33.60%
5	Paychex Inc.	21.20%	Jack Henry	23.40%	Celgene Corp.	33.00%
6	The Gap Inc.	21.10%	Polaris Industries	22.10%	Gilead Sciences	31.20%
7	Nike Inc.	20.60%	Micros Systems	21.70%	Middleby Corp.	30.20%
8	Altria Group	20.30%	Balchem Crop.	20.50%	Astronics Corp.	28.90%
9	Precision Castparts	20.30%	EMC Corp.	20.20%	Cooper Comp.	28.20%
10	Stryker Corp.	20.20%	Charles Schwab	20.00%	Balchem Corp.	27.30%

Data:  Bloomberg

Harvest Investor © 2014. All rights reserved. The content and ideas contained in this blog represents only the opinions of the author. The content in no way constitutes investment advice, and should never be relied on in making an investment decision, ever. No content shall be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument, or to participate in any particular trading or investment strategy. The author may hold positions in the securities and companies mentioned on this site. Any position disclosed on this site may be modified or reversed without notice to you. The content herein is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.

Surveying the Net Net Landscape

This morning, right after I brushed my teeth, I went to my trusty Bloomberg terminal and punched out “Bloomberg, Bloomberg, computer on my desk, who’s the fairest of them all?” (10 points* if you knew that was an Other People’s Money reference).

What Bloomberg brought back to me was the following list of of net current asset value stocks. Criteria:

• Stocks Trading on North American Exchanges
• Domiciled in either Canada or the United States
• Market Cap greater than $5 million
• Market Cap is 120% or less of NCAV
• Net Current Asset Value = (Cash & Marketable Securities + Accounts Receivable + Inventory – Total Liabilities – Preferred Equity – Minority Interests).

Please note, I have done no due diligence to check or verify this data. Financial data may be out of date, there may be multiple share classes, or (and I don’t mean to alarm you) there may be a bogeyman or bogeymen in the details. In other words, do your own research.

A few interesting facts:

• According to Bloomberg, there are 62 companies in the U.S. and Canada trading below NCAV (with market caps >$5 million).
• Of the 95 stocks in the table (trading at or below 120% of NCAV):
• 49 are Canadian (51.6%) and 46 are U.S. (48.4%)
• 32 (33.7%) are in the Materials sector, with the vast majority of those in the mining/gold/silver sub industries.
• The average market cap of the group as a whole is $28.5 million, with the largest company being Buhler Industries at $156 million.

And now, with no further delay, the table. Happy hunting!

NCAV Securities as of June 18, 2014

Ticker	Name	Country	NCAV	Market Cap	Market Cap / NCAV
UNRH	UNR HOLDINGS INC	US	$83,759,418	$19,571,840	23%
KGHI	KAISER GROUP HLD	US	$16,639,000	$5,084,752	31%
CLWA	CALLWAVE INC	US	$32,406,000	$10,388,392	32%
AAB	ABERDEEN INTL IN	CN	$37,660,350	$12,665,666	34%
HERB	YASHENG GROUP	US	$382,362,961	$130,902,168	34%
LKII	LAZARE KAPLAN	US	$44,982,000	$16,422,831	37%
ALSC	ALLIANCE SEMICON	US	$71,248,000	$28,090,700	39%
SRTI	SUNRISE TELECOM	US	$11,273,000	$5,134,906	46%
KZX	KAZAX MINERALS I	CN	$19,020,073	$8,722,319	46%
SPCO	STEPHAN COMPANY	US	$12,328,000	$5,953,745	48%
TAIT	TAITRON COMPONEN	US	$11,043,000	$5,373,564	49%
BXLC	BEXIL CORP	US	$36,822,806	$18,555,432	50%
UPGI	UNIVERSAL POWER	US	$16,280,000	$8,283,000	51%
BAT	BATERO GOLD CORP	CN	$16,128,889	$8,796,129	55%
LN	LONCOR RESOURCES	CN	$9,300,400	$5,140,781	55%
TSPT	TRANSCEPT PHARMA	US	$67,885,000	$39,218,728	58%
ARL	AFRICO RESOURCES	CN	$55,532,501	$33,873,736	61%
PDQ	PETRODORADO ENER	CN	$27,086,067	$16,889,148	62%
SPGZ	SPECTRUM GROUP	US	$27,793,000	$17,652,448	64%
TWMC	TRANS WORLD ENTM	US	$163,232,008	$103,897,384	64%
SVU	SPUR VENTURES	CN	$29,187,887	$18,726,228	64%
NUX	NEW PACIFIC META	CN	$25,483,641	$17,069,248	67%
DNV	DUNAV RESOURCES	CN	$11,670,345	$7,889,375	68%
NRE	NAMIBIA RARE EAR	CN	$13,155,038	$8,950,278	68%
MUN	MUNDORO CAPITAL	CN	$13,073,487	$9,121,723	70%
INV	INV METALS INC	CN	$21,052,514	$14,826,293	70%
KRN	KARNALYTE RESOUR	CN	$49,040,879	$34,623,552	71%
TSRI	TSR INC	US	$8,410,689	$5,945,048	71%
ORG	ORCA GOLD INC	CN	$85,898,869	$61,221,280	71%
KXM	KOBEX MINERALS I	CN	$34,138,818	$25,140,932	74%
RYG	RYAN GOLD CORP	CN	$20,338,569	$15,228,192	75%
AMR	AMAROK ENERGY IN	CN	$21,647,702	$16,312,676	75%
IDEA	INVENT VENTURES	US	$9,158,679	$7,053,286	77%
MWC	MEDWELL CAPITAL	CN	$12,230,000	$9,467,366	77%
MSN	EMERSON RADIO	US	$61,967,000	$48,019,804	77%
OEG	ONENERGY INC	CN	$15,885,000	$12,556,398	79%
RDU	RADIUS GOLD INC	CN	$13,613,703	$10,834,452	80%
STC	SANGOMA TECH COR	CN	$10,275,470	$8,216,496	80%
PRLS	PEERLESS SYSTEMS	US	$11,873,000	$9,523,083	80%
IGOI	IGO INC	US	$11,385,000	$9,275,827	81%
SODI	SOLITRON DEVICES	US	$10,973,000	$9,071,203	83%
JLMC	JLM COUTURE INC	US	$6,909,564	$5,718,955	83%
SPRS	SURGE COMPONENTS	US	$8,757,133	$7,257,071	83%
PTNT	INTERNET PATENTS	US	$29,299,000	$24,418,648	83%
CRV	COAST DISTR SYS	US	$20,442,000	$17,094,982	84%
ECC	ETHOS GOLD CORP	CN	$8,731,667	$7,388,015	85%
SWD	SUNWARD RESOURCE	CN	$29,261,302	$24,907,284	85%
MBS	MOBIUS RESOURCES	CN	$14,834,000	$12,673,688	85%
RELL	RICHARDSON ELEC	US	$159,301,000	$140,253,328	88%
TCCO	TECHNICAL COMM	US	$9,502,425	$8,514,204	90%
IDC	INTL DATACASTING	CN	$6,397,125	$5,850,629	91%
STLY	STANLEY FURNITUR	US	$43,303,000	$39,635,320	92%
ZC	ZIMTU CAPITAL	CN	$7,307,772	$6,759,292	92%
COSN	COSINE COMMUNIC	US	$19,938,000	$18,865,714	95%
CRG	CORONA GOLD CORP	CN	$10,124,632	$9,635,355	95%
ADI	ADRIANA RESOURCE	CN	$28,886,625	$27,571,992	95%
SN	SENNEN POTASH CO	CN	$8,041,069	$7,780,039	97%
MSV	MINCO SILVER COR	CN	$60,367,081	$58,415,924	97%
UGD	UNIGOLD INC	CN	$7,489,165	$7,311,397	98%
CNDO	CORONADO BIOSCIE	US	$80,217,000	$78,863,000	98%
GENC	GENCOR INDS INC	US	$104,459,000	$103,743,824	99%
ELR	EASTERN PLATINUM	CN	$93,425,000	$92,818,784	99%
PARF	PARADISE INC	US	$15,594,532	$15,691,920	101%
CDCO	COMDISCO HOLDING	US	$19,952,000	$20,144,756	101%
VII	VICON INDUSTRIES	US	$11,556,038	$11,710,101	101%
DCTH	DELCATH SYSTEMS	US	$25,620,000	$26,158,662	102%
BSHI	BOSS HOLDINGS	US	$23,260,000	$23,895,528	103%
GIC	GENTERRA CAPITAL	CN	$13,798,496	$14,217,792	103%
EPL	EAGLE PLAINS RES	CN	$6,485,414	$6,699,094	103%
SDOI	SPECIAL DIVERSIF	US	$23,578,000	$24,392,062	103%
ORBT	ORBIT INTL CORP	US	$12,832,000	$13,341,849	104%
GRG	GOLDEN ARROW RES	CN	$8,634,103	$8,981,204	104%
BEV/H	BENEV CAPITAL IN	CN	$67,968,188	$71,740,960	106%
AEY	ADDVANTAGE TECH	US	$28,510,396	$30,453,292	107%
BLT	BRILLIANT RESOUR	CN	$10,491,009	$11,209,108	107%
SMGI	SMG INDIUM RESOU	US	$17,597,740	$18,836,394	107%
HCI	HARTCO INC	CN	$38,901,000	$41,649,628	107%
LVN	LEVON RESOURCES	CN	$46,520,825	$50,013,604	108%
HMM/A	HAMMOND MANUF-A	CN	$15,236,000	$16,434,734	108%
FRD	FRIEDMAN INDTRY	US	$50,786,076	$55,484,144	109%
AXTI	AXT INC	US	$61,276,000	$68,470,408	112%
BUI	BUHLER INDS	CN	$139,210,992	$156,000,000	112%
PCO	PHOENIX CAN OIL	CN	$7,087,715	$7,970,527	112%
DL	DANIER LEATHER	CN	$32,380,000	$36,421,888	112%
MLR	MELIOR RESOURCES	CN	$21,574,998	$24,318,928	113%
SMIT	SCHMITT INDS	US	$7,391,043	$8,374,548	113%
GDL	GOODFELLOW INC	CN	$73,631,000	$83,789,560	114%
ATX	ARGENTEX MINING	CN	$5,241,142	$5,970,570	114%
TRGT	TARGACEPT INC	US	$122,479,000	$140,206,048	114%
OPST	OPT-SCIENCES	US	$11,939,854	$13,689,075	115%
FOS	PHOSCAN CHEMICAL	CN	$41,946,905	$48,596,944	116%
HYD	HYDUKE ENERGY SE	CN	$14,597,455	$17,028,384	117%
BVSN	BROADVISION INC	US	$40,715,000	$47,950,592	118%
SUP	NORTHERN SUPERIO	CN	$6,320,701	$7,546,196	119%
SVT	SERVOTRONICS INC	US	$14,418,000	$17,286,616	120%

Full Disclosure:  Author may hold a position in securities listed in the table.

*Points have no cash value, are redeemable for nothing, and in every sense of the word are “pointless.” Now puns on the other hand . . .

Harvest Investor © 2014. All rights reserved. The content and ideas contained in this blog represents only the opinions of the author. The content in no way constitutes investment advice, and should never be relied on in making an investment decision, ever. No content shall be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument, or to participate in any particular trading or investment strategy. The author may hold positions in the securities and companies mentioned on this site. Any position disclosed on this site may be modified or reversed without notice to you. The content herein is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.