World's 10 most admired companies

Fortune magazine's latest survey to find the world's most admired companies throws up some routine and some startling results.

To compile the list of 50 most admired companies, the magazine asked business people to vote for companies that they admired most.

While Apple topped the list for the fourth straight year, Accenture and Low's were tied at 49th position.

To know more about the 10 companies that came out on top, ...

1. Apple: Overall score 8.16

For the fourth consecutive year, Apple tops Fortune's Most Admired Companies list.

Apple's policy to keep releasing new products in the market has not only raised the bar for hi-tech companies across the world, it has also earned it admirers.

Apple has doubled its quarterly profits compared to a year ago. It also introduced iPad 2 in March, marking the second generation of one of milestone product successes.

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2. Google: Overall score 8.22

Google continues to be the 'King of Search'. Apart from reigning over the search engine market, the company is diving into devices with open-source operating systems.

Google says it activates devices loaded with its Android operating system at a rate of over 10 million every month.

It has also seen growth in YouTube, display advertising and even paid enterprise applications.

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3. Berkshire Hathaway: Overall score 6.88

Berkshire Hathaway's CEO Warren Buffett remains one of the world's most admired businessmen, mainly due to his brilliant investment judgement.

An example is Johnson & Johnson in which he raised his stake even though J&J was busy recalling its products.

The case illustrates Buffett's practice of picking up stocks when they are down.

He recently wrote: "In 2011, we will set a new record for capital spending - $8 billion - and spend all of the $2 billion increase in the United States."

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4. Southwest Airlines: Overall score 6.17

Since launching low-cost flights in the 1970s, Southwest Airlines has been providing more consistent results than most other airlines.

While other carriers have been receiving flak for increasing fares, Southwest has remained one of the most admired airlines.

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5. Procter and Gamble: Overall score 7.43

Procter & Gamble is the world's largest consumer-products company, with annual sales of around $79 billion.

Although with commodity prices rising, P&G will be forced to raise prices on some of its products, but its strong foundation will help it manage any volatility down the supply line.

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6. Coca-Cola: Overall score 5.93

Coca-Cola continues to expand across China, and has received praise by environmentalists for its efforts to conserve water.

CEO Muhtar Kent said in its latest earnings report that Coke "met or exceeded all of our long-term growth targets for both the quarter and the year".

Coca-Cola stands as one of the great brands, in a league with corporate giants like Nike and GE.

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7. Amazon.com: Overall score 7.95

When Amazon.com launched Kindle; many thought Apple's iPad would give it a run for its money. But now it looks like customers are purchasing both tablets to serve different purposes.

In December, the company introduced 3G Kindle. In February, it started offering streaming videos, which many consider a direct challenge to Netflix. Now, it plans to run an app store for Android.

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8. FedEx: Overall score 6.98

FedEx, which was hit hard by the global recession, still hasn't recovered fully, and had to scale back its quarterly profit forecast due to a rise in fuel costs and expenses.

On the plus side, businesses continue to rely it for timely deliveries and high-quality service.

It plans to boost its presence in India and China, a move expected to give it a further boost to its business.

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9. Microsoft: Overall score 6.66

Microsoft has launched several new products in the past few years, although its search engine Bing still trails behind Google.

Its Xbox Kinect has been able to cut into the motion-sensor video game market dominated by Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Move.

Plus, Windows Phone 7 has been able to fight off competition from Android, iPhone and BlackBerry. Microsoft has sold 300 million licenses for the Windows 7 operating system to date.

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10. McDonald's: Overall score 7.97

Although McDonald's has been a target of fast-food critics, its new items on the menu and its efforts to offer cheaper items for those hot hard by the economic recession have helped it remain an admired and a recognizable brand.

In addition to that, it also runs several charity programmes, which helps boost its image.

In January, McDonald's announced that sales were way up; since then, the stock has continued to rise.