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.

Level 3 Communications (<a href='//money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=LVLT'>LVLT</a>)
Level 3 Communications (LVLT)
Total return: 95%
Fortune 500 rank: 465
The telecom services company spent the better part of 2006 on a shopping spree. Wall Street seemed to endorse the move, as the stock nearly doubled in value.

But while the acquisition strategy has given Level 3 new telecommunications infrastructure as it girds for competition against bigger rivals like Verizon and AT&T, it has also saddled the company in debt.

See more Fortune 500 data for Level 3 Communications
Allegheny Terex AK Steel OfficeMax Level 3 CarMax Continental Big Lots Agco Cablevision DirecTV GameStop Nucor Emcor Oneok Group 1 Automotive General Motors Lexmark Comcast Manpower
Total return to investors includes both price appreciation and dividend yield to an investor in the company's stock. The figures shown assume sales at the end of 2006 of stock owned at the end of 2005.
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.