When it comes to stock returns, Monster Beverage leaves behind tech giants like Google and Apple

By Nathan McAlone

The meteoric rise of tech giants like Apple, Google, and Netflix has been well-documented. And if you were going to make a list of the best investments over the past decade, those would no doubt immediately come to mind.

But when Dadaviz analyst Alis Pitchkhadze actually looked at the data of best stock market investments over the past 9 years, she found something strange. There were two companies at the top you might not expect.

The first is Priceline.com, a website that helps users find discount rates for things like airline flights and hotels.

Pitchkhadze found that an investment of $10,000 9 years ago would now be worth a shocking $465,150.92. That's a return of about 4,500 per cent.

The other company that rose above Google, Apple, and Netflix was Monster Beverage Corporation, makers of Monster energy drinks. The stock has ballooned to over 40 times its original value over the past 9 years. And Monster is now actually the top-selling cold beverage in the Army & Air Force Exchange Service.

Steve Jobs once allegedly lured former Apple CEO John Sculley away from Pepsi with the line: "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?"

Now it seems that over the past 9 years, sugar water (with a bit of guarana), has beaten Apple's stock. Of course, that's not to say that Monster has changed the world in a more profound way than Apple. But it certainly has found a way to get investors insane returns.