"[2] On the other hand, Professor Jeremy Siegel analyzed the Nifty Fifty era in his book Stocks for the Long Run, and determined companies that routinely sold for P/E ratios above 50 consistently performed worse than the broader market (as measured by the S&P 500) in the next 25 years, with only a few exceptions.
The most common characteristic by the constituents were solid earnings growth for which these stocks were assigned extraordinary high price–earnings ratios.
A notable exception was Wal-Mart, the best performing stock on the list, with a 29.65% compounded annualized return over a 29-year period.
[1] However, Wal-Mart's initial public offering was in 1970 and only started trading on the NYSE on August 25, 1972,[4] at the end of the bull market.
[5] Because of the under-performance of most of the nifty fifty list, it is often cited as an example of unrealistic investor expectations for growth stocks.