10 Most Googled Stocks in 2013

At the end of the year Google likes to take a look back and remind you what the most popular search terms were.

Breaking down popular search terms by category, Google picked the 10 stocks with the largest increase in search volume since last year. Most of these stocks enjoyed giant jumps in share price, but some were top search terms because of the trouble they ran into throughout the year.

Here are the companies that caught the world’s attention this year and had some of the biggest market stories of 2013.

10. Freddie Mac

Symbol: FMCC

Current Price: $2.58

propublica.org

Interest in Freddie Mac peaked in late May and early June, particularly in Virginia, New York, Ohio, Florida and California, when the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index showed better-than-expected housing data.

Since the beginning of the year, Freddie Mac’s stock is up 821%.

9. Herbalife

Symbol: HLF

Current Price: $75.71

investorplace.com

Herbalife’s stock is up 135% from the beginning of the year, despite the fact that hedge fund manager Bill Ackman famously shorted the stock.

According to Google’s data, North Dakota and Oklahoma are the states that have searched for Herbalife the most.

8. SolarCity Corporation

Symbol: SCTY

Current Price: $52.42

solarcity.com

By far, California had the most interest in searching for SolarCity, the solar power system provider, which is also headquartered in the Golden State. Interest peaked in early November right around earnings season, and the stock dropped after the company gave fourth-quarter guidance below Wall Street’s expectations. Still the stock is up 325% year to date.

Interestingly, SolarCity actually has connections Tesla Motors, which appears later in the list.

7. J.C. Penney

Symbol: JCP

Current Price: $8.20

dailyfinance.com

While most of the stocks on this list are up big since the beginning of the year, the same cannot be said about J.C. Penney, which is down 61%. The blame has largely been on the company’s string of unsuccessful CEOs, particularly former CEO Ron Johnson. Although he is no longer CEO, JCP is still feeling the effects of his changes.

Search interest in the company peaked in late November (just in time for holiday shopping), with interest coming in strongly from all states except for Oregon and Hawaii.

6. Fannie Mae

Symbol: FNMA

Current Price: $2.71

Much like Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae had a big year when housing numbers came in higher than expected back in late May. The stock is up a whopping 900% since the beginning of the year — although, now there is talk that Congress might wind down both Fannie and Freddie and replace them with one agency.

5. Blackberry

Symbol: BBRY

Current Price: $6.10

blackberry.com

Like J.C. Penney, BlackBerry’s stock is down — 48% year to date. Throughout the year search interest for the company has spiked multiple times, recently when the company hired a new CEO, and earlier in the year on buyout drama, a surprise profit, and at the beginning of the year when the company changed its name to BlackBerry from Research in Motion.

4. Google

Symbol: GOOG

Current Price: $1,069.86

google.com

Google broke $1,000 for the first time on Oct. 18 after jumping 14% in one day after a strong earnings report. As a search engine site, the company’s search interest was steady all throughout the year, rather than showing peaks like other stocks on this list.

Since the beginning of the year, the stock is up 48%.

3. Twitter

Symbol: TWTR

Current Price: $56.45

cnn.com

This was the year of Twitter’s IPO and while the stock opened at $44.90 on Nov. 7, it has since increased 26% in little more than a month.

2. Tesla

Symbol: TSLA

Current Price: $152.46

teslamotors.com

The vast majority of search interest for Tesla came from California, just like for SolarCity. Interestingly, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, is the chairman for SolarCity. Tesla’s stock is up 331% year to date, although its current price is down from its peak from the beginning of September to late October.

Search interest in the company spiked in early November after fires in the Model S car and disappointing earnings, and in August, possibly on interest in Musk’s sketch for a hyperloop, a theoretical mode of high-speed transportation.

1. Facebook

Symbol: FB

Current Price: $54.86

Year to date, Facebook’s stock is up 96%, with a sharp jump coming in late July after the social networking giant reported better-than-expected earnings. Much like Google, Facebook’s search interest is fairly steady throughout the year with no sudden spikes correlating with stock jumps.