Good news for Apple! In the Fortune Magazine’s list of the world's most-admired companies, released today, Apple has been able to grab the top position for the second consecutive year, beating the rival companies, like Google and Microsoft.

According to the Fortune Magazine, Apple and Berkshire Hathaway have been listed as No. 1 and No. 2 companies respectively in the 2009 list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies”. The other companies that could make to the top-10 include Toyota Motors at No. 3, Google at No. 4, Johnson & Johnson at No. 5, Procter & Gamble at No. 6, FedEx at No. 7, Southwest Airlines at No. 8, General Electric at No. 9, and Microsoft at No. 10.

Fortune Magazine, in partnership with Hay Group, has been surveying industries, industry executives and financial analysts to find out the companies that have the strongest reputation, both in its industry segment and across multiple other segments. The companies are rated on the bases of the attributes like quality of management, quality of products and services, innovativeness and financial soundness, and market reputation.

The Fortune Magazine reported that in its survey, Apple won the top place among the world's most-admired companies; it is also rated first in the innovation category, but it’s not the top-ranked company within the Computers industry segment, where Xerox is in the top position; Hewlett-Packard is third, Sun Microsystems is fifth and Dell is sixth.

Other notable tech companies in the Fortune Magazine’s list of the world's most-admired companies include IBM (17th place), HP (30th place), Cisco Systems (31st place), Intel (36th place), Nokia (42nd place), Best Buy (44th place), AT&T (48th place) and Samsung (50th place).

The Fortune Magazine also listed the 2009’s least admired companies, which include Circuit City Stores, National City Bank, McClatchy Newspapers, Dillard’s, and Sears.