Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) Top Fortune List

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) are three of the top, most-watched tech companies, and are among the most-watched stocks on the market floor and among investors and analysts. And they are certainly well-played by by many of the equity hedge funds we monitor. Sometimes these companies are respected, sometimes they are reviled. But can they be admired?Jony Ive, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Well, certainly at Fortune magazine, there is apparently a formula that the magazine has created in order to make its annual Most Admired Companies list, and there are several tech companies in the top 50. And what tech companies are at or near the top of this most admired list? Yep,  the three most admired companies according to Fortune are, in exactly this order, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).

To determine the list of most admired companies, Fortune put together a formula that ranked companies on six criteria, including innovation, quality of products/services, global competitiveness and people management. On the list of top 40 companies, tech companies are well represented, besides Apple, Google and Amazon.com. International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) ranked sixth on this list, with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) ranking 17th, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 35th, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) 42nd, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) 47th, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) 48th and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) 49th.

The rest of the top-1o include The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV), Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX).

What do you think? Of the top-50 on this list, what companies do you most admire? Do you have big disagreements with any companies on this list, including the placement of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) or Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the top three? We’d like your thoughts in the comments section below.

DISCLOSURE: I own no positions in any stock mentioned.

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