Apple stock is up 31 percent this year

The stock is not what it was in 2007, when it rose nearly 136% in the space of 12 months, but Apple (AAPL) is off to a good start in 2009.

From Jan. 2, when it opened at $85.88, to April 2, when it closed at $112.71, Apple has gained 31.24% -- easily outpacing the Dow, which is still down more than 9% for the year.

So how is Apple doing relative to the stocks it's most often compared with, the so-called "Four Horsemen of Tech"? As the chart below shows, it has so far out-performed Google (GOOG) and Research in Motion (RIMM), but paled beside Amazon (AMZN), which is up 48%.

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Apple is nothing if not volatile, but not matter what happens there's no way that 2009 could to end up looking like 2008, when its shares fell more than 56% and its market cap dropped nearly $100 billion. Apple's enterprise value today is $71 billion and $28.8 billion of that is in cash and negotiable securities.

Apple opened at $113.75 and was up more than 2% in early trading Friday.

The big mover Friday, however, was RIM, which opened at $58.13, up nearly 20% following Thursday's surprisingly strong fourth-quarter earnings report. That pushes it ahead of Apple in the Four Horsemen chart, but still trailing Amazon.