Five strongest stocks of the past year: Should you invest in them today?

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s all the advertisements for investment firms so cleverly remind us, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Still, it can be tough to resist the temptation to jump on the bandwagon of the stocks that have been rising the fastest. So the question is: Is it too late to cash in on the past year's big winners?

Of the five companies which have boosted their stock market capitalizations (price per share times number of shares outstanding) the most since last year, Apple (AAPL) looks like the best bet. While momentum might propel these five higher, none of them are cheap, so I'd look elsewhere for bargains.