'APPLE RANKS BEST INVESTMENT'

The iPhone helped to catapult Apple into its position as the world's most valuable publicly traded company.

But now Apple has another and, arguably, more exalted stock market distinction.

In the history of the market since 1926, Apple has generated more profit for investors than any other American company.

That conclusion emerges from a study of stock market returns by Hendrik Bessimbinder, a finance professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State university.

His broad findings on the market are startling :
Most stocks aren't good investments. They don't even beat the paltry returns of one-month Treasury bill, he has found.

But a relative handful of stocks are extraordinary performers. Only 4 percent of all publicly traded stocks account for all of the net wealth earned by investors in the stock market since 1926, he has found.

But a relative handful of stocks are extraordinary performers. Only 4 percent of all publicly traded stock accounts for all the net worth earned by investors in the stock market since 1926, he has found.

A mere 30 stocks account for 30 percent of the net wealth generated by stocks in that long period, and 50 stocks account for 40 percent of the net wealth.