Photos: See the Ten Best-Performing Colorado Stocks

Want to invest in Colorado?

If so, there are plenty of publicly traded Colorado companies.

But which are the ones that are most likely to offer you a return on your money?

To find out, Smart Asset looked at Colorado-based stocks over approximately a five-year period, from January 2010 through March 2015, as judged by three major factors: stock price, dividends paid and volatility. And the following ten Colorado companies scored highest.

Not all of the top ten are well-known. Indeed, with the exception of two familiar restaurant chains, a firm specializing in dialysis services and a certain satellite-cable provider, many of them won't be familiar to the average person. But they may be worth mentioning to your broker.

Count down the photo-illustrated top ten here, followed by a description of methodology — and to visit the original Smart Asset post, click here.

Number 10: Air Methods Corp.
Market Cap Category: Small Cap
City: Englewood, CO
Annual Return: 31.7 percent
Volatility: 38.94 percent
Stock Performance Index: 49.00

Number 9: Heska Corporation
Market Cap Category: Small Cap
City: Loveland, CO
Annual Return: 37.47 percent
Volatility: 44.64 percent
Stock Performance Index: 49.75

Number 8: Synergy Resources Corporation
Market Cap Category: Small Cap
City: Platteville, CO
Annual Return: 46.19 percent
Volatility: 51.66 percent
Stock Performance Index: 51.38

Number 7: Dish Network Corp.
Market Cap Category: Large  Cap
City: Englewood, CO
Annual Return: 27.39 percent
Volatility: 29.62 percent
Stock Performance Index: 52.28

Number 6. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc.
Market Cap Category: Small Cap
City: Greenwood Village, CO
Annual Return: 36.09 percent
Volatility: 38.86 percent
Stock Performance Index: 52.41


Number 5: Innospec Inc.
Market Cap Category: Small Cap
City: Englewood, CO
Annual Return: 32.56 percent
Volatility: 34.17 percent
Stock Performance Index: 53.12

Number 4: DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.
Market Cap Category: Large Cap
City: Denver, CO
Annual Return: 20.20 percent
Volatility: 20.23 percent
Stock Performance Index: 54.47

Number 3: The Spectranetics Corporation
Market Cap Category: Small Cap
City: Colorado Springs, CO
Annual Return: 39.79 percent
Volatility: 37.04 percent
Stock Performance Index: 56.73

Number 2: Ball Corporation
Market Cap Category: Large Cap
City: Broomfield, CO
Annual Return: 21.63 percent
Volatility: 19.03 percent
Stock Performance Index: 58.57

Number 1: Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.
Market Cap Category: Large Cap
City: Denver, CO
Annual Return: 47.50 percent
Volatility: 31.91 percent
Stock Performance Index: 69.05

Methodology

Our study aims to find the companies with the best performing stock in each area of the nation. We wanted to find the companies with stock prices that have grown the fastest and paid the most in dividends while providing the least amount of risk to investors. To do that we looked at the companies that are publicly traded on major U.S. exchanges (New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and AMEX) and have a market value greater than $50 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015.

We divided the companies into 3 categories based on their market capitalization. Large Cap companies have a market value greater than $10 billion. Mid Cap companies have a market value between $2 billion and $10 billion. Small Cap companies have a market value of less than $2 billion.

Then we looked at the stock price, dividends and volatility of each company over a time period of a little more than 5 years (from December 30th, 2009 to March 31st, 2015). We used the stock price and dividend data to calculate an average annual stock price return. We calculated the risk-adjusted return of the stocks using the Sharpe Ratio. The Sharpe Ratio is the stock return minus the risk-free rate divided by volatility. We used the rate on a 3-month Treasury bill on March 31st, 2015 as the risk-free rate.

Finally, we indexed and ranked each of the companies based on this risk-adjusted return to find the best performing stocks across the country and by state. State rankings include companies headquartered in that state.
Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.