Top performing stocks of 2006

These 20 stocks produced the largest total returns to shareholders in 2006. For this list, we included only Fortune 500 companies that traded for at least $2.

Manpower (<a href='/quote/quote.html?symb=MAN'>MAN</a>)
Manpower (MAN)
Total return: 63%
Fortune 500 rank: 131
The second-largest staffing company in the world reported sharply higher earnings in 2006, mainly from its international markets, while weak staffing markets in the United States resulted from a slowing in U.S. economic growth. The staffing industry is highly influenced by the strength of the economy, which echoed in Manpower's international success, and that of its main competitor Adecco.

Despite being well positioned for the longer-term because of its large size and range of service, analysts expect Manpower's revenue growth to slow and margins to remain relatively low given the competitive nature of the industry.

See more Fortune 500 data for Manpower
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Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2013 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2013 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2013. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.