Company popularity & stock performance

I saw this very interesting infographic the other day, that in a very visual manner, conveys a simple truth often to be realised with pain by various stockbrokers around the world : It takes more than popularity, or company image, to reflect on a company’s stock value or general performance in the stock market. Once in a while, a disconnect between companies that are popular with consumers and companies that are popular with investors, is realised.

This infographic aims in pointing out that fact, picking out three companies that are loathed by many but the favorite of many investors, and three companies that are loved by consumers but might cause investors to be more wary. Created by GreatBusinessSchools.org, the infographic taps sources such as BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, resulting in a boatload of illustrated data.

Philip Morris might be one of the companies people might hate because it makes cigarettes, a product that kills people. But even though its product (and that of other cigarette companies) causes 5 million people to smoke themselves to death each year, investors seem undaunted. They're apparently more interested in the fact that Philip Morris stock is up 95% over the past three years, beating the S&P 500 index by a mile (it only climbed 19% in the same period).

The ubiquitously beloved Apple didn't get past the unwavering gaze of these researchers, who noticed the recent precipitous drop of the company's stock, falling 18% since late October and wiping out more than $100 billion of market cap. The infographic notes how investors are becoming more wary of the Cupertino company, as well as the stock of Facebook and Microsoft. Given the noticeable fall in the trio's stock prices, the wariness of investors is showing up in the fact that there are more sellers than buyers of those three stocks.