Top 50 Index
Top 50
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
Company
Verizon Communications/Wireless
Con Edison Co. of New York
The Coca-Cola Co.
Health Care Service Corp.*
HBO**
PricewaterhouseCoopers*
Turner Broadcasting**
Abbott
BellSouth
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Fla.*
JPMorgan Chase
Comerica
HSBC 110
Sodexho
Cingular Wireless*
Colgate-Palmolive
Wells Fargo 100
PepsiCo
Sempra Energy
Macy’s/Bloomingdale’s
Wachovia
90
Marriott International
Allstate
Ernst & Young*
Bank of America
80
IKON Office Solutions A
Citigroup
Sun Trust Banks
Toyota Motor North America
American Express
Hewlett-Packard
Cox Communications*
Starwood Hotels
Merck & Co.
Bausch & Lomb
Kaiser Permanente*
Ford Motor Co.
Kraft Foods
Sprint Nextel
MGM MIRAGE
Harris
Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp.
DaimlerChrysler
Merrill Lynch & Co.
Starbucks Coffee Co.
SC Johnson*
WellPoint
Prudential Financial
Compuware
Darden
DiversityInc Top 50 Index Return for 1 Year
120 2005
2006
SP500
DJIA
Top
50 Index
NASDAQ
S
O
N
D
J
F
M
AMJ
J
A
*These companies are not in The 2006
DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity
Index, which only includes the 42 publicly
traded companies in The DiversityInc 2006
Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.
**Traded as Time Warner. © 2006 DiversityInc
All four of the indexes did well in the period studied, from July 15 to
Aug. 15. The overall market increase can be attributed to hints from
the Federal Reserve that the recent interest-rate climb is ending as well
as positive federal economic data and a decline in gas prices. Comparing
returns for one year, the Top 50 index rose 1. 5 percent, while the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was up 4 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 increased
4. 5 percent, and the Nasdaq rose 3. 8 percent.
Keep in mind that with only 42 publicly traded stocks, the DI Top 50
Index is more strongly impacted by the volatility of one stock than the three
larger indexes against which it is compared.
There were a few strong winners in this month’s DI Top 50 Index. Ford
Motor Co., No. 37 on The 2006 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for
Diversity® list, was up 19. 4 percent after analysts said the stock price may
have bottomed out and expectations for European sales rose (this was before
the announcement of Ford’s new president and CEO, Alan Mulally).
BellSouth, No. 9, rose 13 percent. AT&T shareholders approved the $67-
billion acquisition of BellSouth, expected to be completed within a year. And
Merck & Co., No. 34, was up 11. 7 percent after analysts upgraded it from
“neutral” to “buy.”
On the downside, Sprint Nextel, No. 39, dropped 17. 6 percent after its
president and chief operating officer, Len Lauer, was fired because of several
poor quarters of subscriber growth. Starbucks Coffee Co., No. 45, was down
11. 5 percent after reporting lower same-store sales results than anticipated. DI
