While the economy is showing signs of life, not every Fortune 500 company is benefiting. Botched restructuring efforts, misguided management, and bum technology plays plagued this year's 10 worst performers.
For investors in these Fortune 500 companies, it was a horrible, no good, very bad year, with stocks of each falling more than 45%. One company, the iconic Eastman Kodak, filed for Chapter 11.
The outcomes were similar, but the reasons for the slumps vary. At J.C. Penney, a stalled turnaround crushed stockholders' hopes that CEO Ron Johnson was going to work miracles for the struggling retailer. Chipmaker AMD laid off hundreds as it struggled to adapt to the mobile wave. And in Kodak's case, the advent of the digital camera finally proved too much for the filmmaker to bear.
These companies are outliers this year. As of December 7, only 98 of the Fortune 500 companies' stock prices had gone down. Of those companies, 77 fell less than 25%. Click through to find out what went wrong with the bottom 10.
It's been a strong year for stocks, and these ten Fortune 500 companies have outshined the broader market. Nearly all of them have doubled. From Bank of America to Whirlpool, here are the biggest winners.
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