Everyone wants to know the best performing stocks of all time. People enjoy looking over lists like that and saying “If only I had invested Great Aunt Emma’s insurance money in that stock, I’d be living large right now… I’d own a boat, and I’d have a new Ducati bike, I’d…”. It’s fun to pretend and wonder what could have been. But that’s not why we’re listing these stocks, we’re not interested in fantasy. We’re listing the top ten best performing stocks to prove a real point, to highlight a valuable lesson in investing and help you make real money.

But first, here’s the list.

The top ten best performing stocks from 1998 to 2007:

1. Hansen Natural (HANS)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 21,201%
Market Cap in 1998: $16.5 million
2. Asta Funding (ASFI)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 8,252%
Market Cap in 1998: $3.1 million
3. Celgene (CELG)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 6,771%
Market Cap in 1998: $129.0 million
4. Apple (AAPL)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 5,959%
Market Cap in 1998: $1.7 billion
5. Comtech Telecommunications (CMTL)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 4,246%
Market Cap in 1998: $11.3 million
6. Daktronics (DAKT)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 3,493%
Market Cap in 1998: $23.1 million
7. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 3,455%
Market Cap in 1998: $24.7 million
8. Clean Harbors (CLHB)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 3,378%
Market Cap in 1998: $15.8 million
9. Innodata Isogen (INOD)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 3,135%
Market Cap in 1998: $3.1 million
10. Immucor (BLUD)
Return (From 1998 to 2007): 2,941%
Market Cap in 1998: $70.0 million

So what’s the great lesson we’re trying to show you with this list? What amazing revelation should be sweeping over you?

Most of these stocks, you’ve probably never heard of. They’re obscure, even today. But more importantly, all of these stocks, with the exception of Apple, were Micro Cap stocks (worth less than $250 million) back in 1998. And even Apple was ignored back then; it was before the iPods and the iPhones and the great Apple fan movement. No analysts cared about Apple in 1998.
Not only were these all tiny companies…they were all ignored by Wall Street. They were all Under the Radar stocks.

Too many young investors these days are buying Google and Apple and other huge companies that simply don’t have any more room to grow, or companies that everyone is talking about. Sure, they may be well-run, excellent companies, but you’re just not going to see real growth with them. And if you’re an investor, especially a young one, growth is what you want. If you just wanted wealth protection, you could buy bonds or even a Vanguard ETF (Exchange Traded Fund – We’ll talk about those later this week). That’s not investing though. If you want to be an investor, you have to look elsewhere.

It comes back to the Common Sense Investor’s 3 big questions: are they Ready, Willing, and Able? If you want to find those rare companies that, over the next ten years, will give you a return of 5,000%, 10,000%, even 20,000%, you have to look where no one else is looking. Those kinds of returns only come from the well-run, small, obscure, ignored little companies. Companies like Preformed Line Products (PLPC) and PHI, Inc (PHII).

Again, like we made clear in this post, just because a stock is small and ignored, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. You have to factor in every aspect of quality. But if you can find those financially solid, under-the-radar stocks with great management and satisfied customers and lots of room to grow, then you’ve struck gold, so buy and hold. It’s really just Common Sense.

This is a new feature at the Common Sense Investor: the Under the Radar stock pick. An under the radar stock is simply a stock that no one on Wall Street is paying attention to yet. Stocks like that can offer you great returns because their true value isn’t yet priced in, so they’re often trading at a significant discount. But just because there’s a lack of interest, that doesn’t automatically mean a stock is a great opportunity. You still have to do your due diligence and find out if they’re ready, willing, and able. If they are a good company and under the radar, well, then they can offer fantastic returns in the long run, especially when Wall Street starts to take notice.

One of those great under the radar stocks is the helicopter services & transport company, PHI, Inc. (PHII). They currently have only one (1) pro-analyst following them and hardly any attention from Wall Street at all. For example, only 46 CAPS members are following the stock, out of a pool of 60,000 members.

But, what do they do, and are they a solid company?
PHI is a transporting company; they transport parts, equipment, and most of all, personnel to, from, and between offshore oil and gas platforms, principally in the Gulf of Mexico and principally with helicopters. They’re a $650 million dollar company and one of the world’s top commercial helicopter operators. They maintain a fleet of about 235 aircraft, mostly helicopters but they also have some fixed-wing aircraft.
It’s quite a large business to be covered by only 1 Wall Street analyst.

As for the financials, their revenues have been consistently up year over year, they have good insider and institutional ownership, and solid 15%+ growth each year over the past 3 years. This is a textbook under-the-radar beauty and I think it’s destined to be a 10 bagger at the very least.