S&P 500 Best And Worst Performing Stocks in 2008

josh hunter

• January 02 2009
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• 1 comment

Hindsight is certainly 20-20, and if Doc Brown and Marty ever do get time travel figured out then this post should get a lot of traffic. 2008 was a tough year for the S&P 500, and it isn’t hard to figure out who the top performers were because, well, there weren’t many of them.

The S&P 500 didn’t have a single day where the index closed higher than its 2007 close. What’s more, there were also only 29 stocks in the index that either finished in the green or stopped trading (due to acquisition) at a level that was up for the year.

According to the article on Seeking Alpha, Family Dollar (FDO) finished 2008 as the best performing stock on the S&P 500. It was up 36% for the year. (Wrigley was involved in a takeover. In fact, five of the top fifteen performing stocks in the S&P were acquired in ’08!)

Family Dollar’s performance is accredited to increased occupancy rates in low-income areas where the company’s 6,600 stores are concentrated. FDO also leases the majority of its real estate, and will most likely be able to negotiate “no change” lease rates as they come up for renewal.

Other discount retailers, such as Wal-Mart, also performed well in 2008. Wal-Mart finished 2008 up 18%.

As for the worst, it should be no surprise that financial sector companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac topped the charts, with -99.10 and - 97.86 percentage change respectively. That is, unless you count delisted stocks such as Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, who were down -99.96 % and -99.84 % respectively.

In the retail sector, Circuit City took top honors for being the worst performer. The electronics retailer was delisted this year, and ended up with a -96.90 % change in value.

Maybe not the most uplifting news—unless you bought some stock in FDO, that is. But it’s interesting to see that even in tough economic times there are investment opportunities out there yielding solid returns.

Charts From Seeking Alpha