Top 5 Hardware stocks of 2015

How is this ranking built?

Animation: how NexusTrade builds an industry stock ranking, shown with the live cybersecurity list refreshed Oct 13, 2026. 164 companies are in the Cybersecurity classification. 23 have no AI report on or before the cutoff, leaving 141 with a usable rating; 0 have invalid rating metadata and 0 have a report older than 550 days. 2 lack a required close or market cap and 0 have market data older than 10 days, leaving 139 ranked companies. They are sorted by rating from high to low, and the 8 companies tied at 4.5 out of 5 are ordered by ticker: ANET, AVGO, GOOG, GOOGL, MA, MSFT, NOW, V. A Top N page shows the first N rows. — On the Oct 13, 2026 cybersecurity list, 139 of 164 companies had a usable rating and market data no older than 10 days, and the 8 companies tied at 4.5 out of 5 are ordered by ticker.

Every industry list applies the same steps at its own cutoff: industry membership, the latest AI report rating on or before the cutoff, a report age limit, dated market data, then a sort by rating with ties ordered by ticker. The animation steps through them with one real example, the live cybersecurity list refreshed on October 13, 2026.

A live list's cutoff is its refresh time. A past year's list uses December 31 of the year before, and the current year's list uses the time it was generated. A Top N page shows the first N rows of its year's list and exists only when that list has at least N companies.

The podium

The ring number is the fundamental score from each company's latest AI report on or before the cutoff.

Recommended starting point

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

4.5 / 5 fundamental score · 2014 FY report, 2014-10-27 · Market cap $647,361,039,200 · P/E 16.38

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F5, Inc. Common Stock (FFIV)

4.5 / 5 fundamental score · 2014 FY report, 2014-11-26 · Market cap $9,626,138,495.43 · P/E 30.93

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Illumina Inc (ILMN)

4.5 / 5 fundamental score · 2014 FY report, 2014-10-29 · Market cap $26,210,360,000 · P/E 93.36

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The scores

Fundamental score

Scale: 0 to 4.5 / 5 · zero baseline

Highest rated

AAPL+4.5 / 5
FFIV+4.5 / 5
ILMN+4.5 / 5
IPGP+4.5 / 5
LFUS+4.5 / 5

5 companies tie at the top score of 4.5; tied companies are ordered alphabetically.

Bars show the fundamental score out of 5 for the leading 5 companies; 366 total companies hold a rating in this cohort.

Fundamentals at the cutoff

Dated market observations pinned to 2014-12-31 — the same SEC daily dataset the company pages use, frozen on the day this list was set.

AAPL — Apple Inc.

Market cap $647,361,039,200 · P/E 16.38 · Price / book 5.8 · Close $27.6

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FFIV — F5, Inc. Common Stock

Market cap $9,626,138,495.43 · P/E 30.93 · Price / book 7.03 · Close $130.47

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ILMN — Illumina Inc

Market cap $26,210,360,000 · P/E 93.36 · Price / book Not reported · Close $184.58

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IPGP — IPG Photonics Corporation

Market cap $3,909,488,700.84 · P/E 21.65 · Price / book 3.77 · Close $74.92

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LFUS — Littelfuse Inc

Market cap $2,174,053,391.44 · P/E 20.99 · Price / book Not reported · Close $96.67

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How these stocks traded

AAPL 2026-10-12: 1,147.49
FFIV 2026-10-12: 263.3
ILMN 2026-10-12: 49.21
SPY 2026-10-12: 278.77

AAPLFFIVILMNSPYHistorical simulation

Historical cumulative return since January 1, 2015 for the podium companies against the S&P 500. This selection uses reports through 2014-12-31; the chart describes past prices and is not a strategy backtest.

The whole field

Companies at each score

Scale: 0 to 109 companies · zero baseline

Score level

1.0+3 companies
1.5+16 companies
2.0+45 companies
2.5+60 companies
3.0+109 companies
3.5+74 companies
4.0+54 companies
4.5+5 companies

Every fundamental score available through 2014-12-31 for this industry, including the full selection behind the list above.

How this list is built

Scores are NexusTrade AI fundamental-report ratings on a 1–5 scale: the latest report published on or before 2014-12-31 for every currently tracked company in this selection. Industry membership reflects each company's current products-and-revenue classification, not a historical snapshot; equal scores are ordered alphabetically.

Fundamentals are dated SEC market observations frozen at publication. The current-year list can be republished as new reports arrive; past-year lists keep their original year-end cutoff.

A rating summarizes a filed report; it does not predict a stock's return. Framing: the 5 highest-rated hardware stocks entering 2015.

Full ratings methodology ↗Daily fundamentals dataset ↗All 2015 industry lists ↗

Continue exploring

Top 10 Hardware stocks of 2015 ↗Top 15 Hardware stocks of 2015 ↗Top 20 Hardware stocks of 2015 ↗