St. Louis-based bakery-café chain Panera Bread Company was listed this week as the top-performing company, in total return to its shareholders over the last three years, in an analysis of the Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 index performed by Business Week magazine and USA Today.

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The listing appeared in the Spring 2002 edition of the Business Week Fifty, prepared in conjunction with USA Today.


The publications built their “Small-Cap 50” list by adding the one-year and three-year stock-price increases of companies in the Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 index.


As well as ranking as the premier performer, Panera, with a 769.4% three-year return and a 165.2% one-year return, was also the only restaurant company among the top ten companies.

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