Top performing stocks of 2006

These 20 stocks produced the largest total returns to shareholders in 2006. For this list, we included only Fortune 500 companies that traded for at least $2.

By Katie Benner, David Ellis, Steve Hargreaves, Rob Kelley and Keisha Lamothe

Allegheny Technologies (<a href='http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=ATI'>ATI</a>)

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Allegheny Technologies (ATI)

Total return: 153%

Fortune 500 rank: 455

An explosion in titanium demand nearly doubled prices for the ultra-lightweight metal, and specialty materials producer Allegheny Technologies was a huge beneficiary of the boom.

Citigroup analyst John Hill likes the company's plans to expand capacity and the contracts it inked at the end of 2006 with Boeing and General Electric, writing in a note that "Allegheny serves key markets in aerospace/defense, chemicals, oil and gas and power generation. Far from being cyclically overheated and on the wane, these appear to be just beginning to recover."

See more Fortune 500 data for Allegheny Technologies

Full list: Fortune 500

Allegheny Terex AK Steel OfficeMax Level 3 CarMax Continental Big Lots Agco Cablevision DirecTV GameStop Nucor Emcor Oneok Group 1 Automotive General Motors Lexmark Comcast Manpower

Total return to investors includes both price appreciation and dividend yield to an investor in the company's stock. The figures shown assume sales at the end of 2006 of stock owned at the end of 2005.

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