Apple has ousted rivals yet again to retain the title of the "World's Most Admired Company" for the seventh year running.
Apple reclaimed the top spot thwarting competition from Amazon and Google who placed second and third, respectively, in the 2014 rankings of Fortune's "World's Most Admired Company" list.
"The iconic tech company known for the iPhone and other stylish and user-friendly products is back in the top spot on this year's list, for the seventh year in a row," notes Fortune's Erika Fry.
Fortune published the final annual list on Thursday, February 27, which was narrowed down from 1400 companies. Fortune ranked eligible companies on the basis of surveys that were conducted and had 3,920 respondents who comprised directors, executives and analysts.
Apple received major points for innovation, financial soundness, people management and quality of its products and services to name a few.
According to Fortune, Apple "fan boys and girls" are eagerly awaiting the launch of the next big thing from the Cupertino-based company
"Bets are on a smartwatch or AppleTV, but the company is also reportedly turning its attention to cars and medical devices," wrote Fry.
Even though Apple retained the top honors, there were several changes in the top 10 rankings of the "World's Most Admired Company." Amazon moved up a spot to second place from 2013, whereas Google slipped from number two to three.
The fourth spot was claimed by Berkshire Hathaway with popular coffee chain Starbucks a step behind on number five. Coca-Cola, however, did not fare too well slipping from the fourth spot in 2013 to sixth this year. Walt Disney ranked seventh in the annual list, followed by FedEx and Southwest Airlines in eight and ninth positions, respectively.
Rounding up the top 10 was General Electric. Notably, absent from the top 10 was IBM which slipped to number 16.
Several other prominent companies like Nike (number 13), Samsung (number 21), Facebook (number 38), Microsoft (number 24), McDonalds (number 22), Intel (number 47) and eBay (number 38) also made it to the top 50 of the "World's Most Admired Company" rankings.
