At the start of the year Businessweek picked 16 stocks for 2010. The list is here : Top Stock Picks for 2010
The 16 picks were :
Orion Marine (ORN)
Computer Sciences (CSC)
Verizon (VZ)
HESS (HES)
BB&T (BBT)
Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL)
Varian Medical Systems (VAR)
Discovery Communications (DISCA)
Waste Management (WM)
FMC (FMC)
Blackstone Group (BX)
Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA)
Kohl's (KSS)
Urban Outfitters (URBN)
BorgWarner (BWA)
Priceline.com (PCLN)
HEre is how the list performed in 2010
start | end | gain | |
ORN | $ 21.51 | $ 11.68 | -46% |
CSC | $ 57.74 | $ 51.91 | -10% |
VZ | $ 33.28 | $ 35.92 | 8% |
HES | $ 63.16 | $ 77.99 | 23% |
BBT | $ 25.81 | $ 26.44 | 2% |
RCL | $ 25.80 | $ 47.96 | 86% |
VAR | $ 47.17 | $ 68.67 | 46% |
DISCA0 | $ 31.00 | $ 39.82 | 28% |
WM | $ 34.16 | $ 36.82 | 8% |
FMC | $ 56.82 | $ 80.58 | 42% |
BX | $ 13.71 | $ 14.79 | 8% |
TEVA | $ 57.88 | $ 52.63 | -9% |
KSS | $ 53.98 | $ 54.27 | 1% |
URBN | $ 34.91 | $ 35.45 | 2% |
BWA | $ 33.78 | $ 73.37 | 117% |
PCLN | $ 223.96 | $ 415.99 | 86% |
Overall if you'd invested $10,000 equally in the 16 stocks then at the end of 2010 you'd have ended up with about $12,446 including about $123 in dividends for a total gain of about +24.5% for the year.
The S&P 500 was up about 13% for the year. The Businessweek list easily outperformed the market.
This just represents one year. I don't know how well Businessweek might have done in other years or how well they'll do if they pick stocks for 2011.