March 9, 2009 marked the absolute apex of selling and marked the official ending date of the bear market.  At the time, many were expecting stocks to see gains because of grossly oversold conditions.  Yet how many investors and traders would have guessed that so many major companies would see their stocks double and triple?  We wanted to look at the best performers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  It is shocking how many of these are up 100% or far more off of 52-week lows on the anniversary of the crash.

It is amazing that 10 of the 30 DJIA components have more than doubled. Some have done far better than that.  Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) rose over 400% from its 52-week low, while American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) has risen more than 300% from its 52-week lows.  Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) have all risen more than 100%.  Hell, even JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), the greatest bank in America, is still up over 180% from its 52-week low.

What is amazing on top of the 100% and exponential gainers is that this was almost half of the companies in the DJIA if you include those which are up 90% from their 52-week lows.  Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) are almost at doubles off their lows and some have been doubles if the date was different per their 52-week highs and lows.

We have outlined each of these in the tables below.  Included are prices as of this morning, as well as the average price target from Thomson Reuters analyst consensus data, and a forward year P/E ratio based upon Thomson Reuters consensus data.  We have also shown the actual 52-week trading ranges of each, the market cap, and the actual percentage gains from the lows.

Stock	Price	Target	Fut.P/E	52-WEEK	MKT CAP	Gain
AA	$13.72	$18.33	11.43	5.16 – 17.60	14.00B	Up 165.89%
AXP	$39.73	$45.16	12.53	9.86 – 43.25	47.55B	Up 302.95%
BA	$67.84	$62.59	15.63	29.96 – 68.04	49.32B	Up 126.44%
BAC	$16.84	$21.40	8.46	3.20 – 19.10	168.94B	Up 426.25%
CAT	$59.04	$62.50	14.72	22.72 – 64.42	36.88B	Up 159.86%
DD	$35.40	$38.31	13.16	16.05 – 35.62	32.00B	Up 120.56%
DIS	$33.14	$34.70	14.47	15.14 – 33.50	64.28B	Up 118.89%
GE	$16.41	$19.11	13.56	6.88 – 17.52	175.09B	Up 138.52%
HPQ	$51.95	$59.48	10.62	25.39 – 52.95	122.50B	Up 104.61%
JPM	$42.41	$52.76	8.95	15.02 – 47.47	168.50B	Up 182.36%

Then there is the list of “almost made the double” stocks.   As noted, Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), 3M Co. (MMM), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), and United Technologies Corp. (UTX) are all almost there and some have been doubles if the date was different per their 52-week highs and lows.

Stock	Price	Target	Fut.P/E	52-WEEK	MKT CAP	Gain
CSCO	$26.19	$28.36	15.23	13.61 – 26.36	149.95B	Up 92.43%
MMM	$81.47	$94.50	14.34	41.20 – 85.17	57.98B	Up 97.74%
MSFT	$28.89	$33.82	13.07	15.10 – 31.50	253.36B	Up 91.31%
UTX	$71.83	$77.67	13.5	37.40 – 72.94	67.33B	Up 92.05%

As far as how the DJIA itself has done, at 10,570.00 or so, the 52-week low is 6,440.08.  The low close was on March 9, 2009 at 6,547.05.  In short, the DJIA is up a whopping 61.4% in the last year.  We have covered this before in certain sectors, but the 52-week lows and performance metrics are going to start looking far different in just a few weeks.

JON C. OGG

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