You wouldn’t know it from the relentlessly skeptical commentary on CNBC, the Pulitzer-prize-winning series in the New York Times, or the measly 12 times earnings Wall Street pays for its stock, but Apple (AAPL) is widely respected by people in the business.
“Apple is undoubtedly a victim of its own success,” Adam Lashinsky wrote last year when Apple — its share price still in free fall — topped Fortune‘s annual “most admired” list for the sixth year in a row.
Now, with the stock only partially recovered from its 2012-2013 losses, Apple has done it again. For the seventh straight year, it has been named by a jury of its peers the World’s Most Admired Company.
Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) were No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, having switched places from their 2013 rankings.
Among the other tech companies in Fortune’s top-50 “all star” list:
- IBM (IBM) fell to No. 16
- Samsung rose to No. 21
- Microsoft (MSFT) fell to No. 24
- Facebook (FB) rose to No. 38
- eBay (EBAY) rose to No. 44
- Intel (INTC) fell to No. 47
The full list of most-admired companies and a description of the methodology used to choose them are available here and in the issue of Fortune that comes out today.
