Of the 500 stocks listed in the Standard & Poor's 500, only one has doubled in share price this year: Cabot Oil & Gas. Cabot finished 2010 at $37.85, and entered December at $88.59, for a year-to-date increase of a whopping 134.06 percent. The Houston-based natural gas company, which has only been in the S&P 500 since June 2008, has been by far the biggest winner in 2011, outdistancing another Houston natural gas company, El Paso Corp., which is in second place with a year-to-date gain of 81.76 percent.
Before you get too excited about Cabot, though, note that in 2010, its stock lost 13.17 percent on the year. As they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
No stock on the S&P has been nearly as bad this year as Cabot has been good. The worst performer has been Monster Worldwide, which runs the job-search Web site and has dropped by 69.06 percent. Hot on its heels is Netflix, which has lost 63.27 percent in the wake of its disastrous, now-aborted split into two separate businesses. Like Cabot Oil & Gas, Netflix has seen some quick turnarounds lately: In 2010, its stock had grown by more than 200 percent.
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