5 People Who Killed It in the Stock Market This Year
Dec. 31, 2013 — -- intro: While many people who have invested in the stock market or have mutual funds have seen a boost in their net worth this year, they have likely not seen anywhere near the bump these five people received.
The record-setting year gave us all-time highs for the major stock indices. The S&P and Dow Jones industrial average are on track for the biggest annual gains since the late '90s, while the Nasdaq reached highs not seen since 2000. Companies like Facebook, Google, Tesla and Priceline were top performers, to name only a handful.
Here's how some of the richest people in the country fared at the end of the year, compared with the start of 2013:
quicklist:title: Elon Musk, Tesla Motorscategory: 346 percent increase this yearmedia: 21383420text: Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk has had a banner year despite some bumps in the road with a few highly publicized electric cars that caught on fire. The Tesla stock price was around $35.36 at the start of the year and closed at $152.75 Monday, bumping the value of his ownership to $5.2 billion from about $1.1 billion, according to executive compensation research firm Equilar.
quicklist:title: Reed Hastings, Netflixcategory: 297 percent increase this year media: 21383262text: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has seen his stock holdings increase about 297 percent. Netflix stock started at $92.01 Jan. 2, and on Tuesday, shares closed at $366.99, bumping the value of his holdings to $944 million from $238 million, Equilar says.
Read More: 11 Movies You Should Watch Before Netflix Purges Them Jan. 1
quicklist:title: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook category: 92 percent increase this yearmedia: 21383371text: You can't hold Zucks down. Facebook stock was trading at $28 a pop Jan. 2, below the company's IPO price. Fast forward to Monday, when Facebook shares closed at $53.71. Zuckerberg's Facebook holdings increased to $26 billion from $13.6 billion, Equilar says.
quicklist:title: Carl Icahn, Icahn Enterprises LPcategory: 30 percent increase this yearmedia: 21383473text: Billionaire Carl Icahn had a memorable year. He joined Twitter this summer, and started moving shares of Apple just from his tweets. (He has tweeted 59 times and already has more than 123,400 followers.)
Icahn Enterprises was trading at $80.00 Feb. 15. As of Dec. 30, shares were worth $105.44 a pop, bumping his ownership value to $10.3 billion from $7.9 billion.
Read More: Apple (AAPL) Stock Surges After Billionaire Carl Icahn's Tweets
quicklist:title: Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathawaycategory: 21 percent increase this yearmedia: 21383212text: As expected, "The Oracle" has ownership of multiple companies as CEO of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. Altogether, his ownership value increased to $59.7 billion at the end of the year, from about $49.2 billion at the start of 2013.
