The Drawdowns of the Best Performing U.S. Stocks (1985–2024)

What We’re Showing

This chart ranks the 20 best-performing U.S. stocks from 1985 to 2024 by their annualized shareholder return. It also shows their maximum drawdowns and how long they took to recover, based on analysis by Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global.

The data only includes companies that traded continuously over this 40-year period.

Key Takeaways

• Despite high annualized returns, each of the top 20 stocks faced a drawdown of at least 55%.
• Some leaders saw extreme volatility, with Williams-Sonoma dropping 90%, and Apple falling 83% to reach their lowest points.
• Recovery periods varied widely—for example, while Amgen bounced back in just 1.6 years, Eli Lilly took nearly a decade.
• The S&P 500, for comparison, had an annualized return of 11.8%, a 58% drawdown, and a 4.2-year recovery.