New York ? A beaming Martha Stewart praised her employees on her first day back at work Monday and told the cheering workers who welcomed her return that she thought of them every day of her five months in prison.

“All of you are my heroes,” Stewart told the crowd.

After five months in prison and a weekend spent more comfortably at her 153-acre suburban estate, Stewart spoke to staff at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., as her remarks were broadcast live.

With barely a pause since she was released from a federal women’s prison in Alderson, W.Va., on Friday, Stewart addressed a staff diminished by layoffs in her absence but also no doubt encouraged by a rising stock price.

“It’s really wonderful to be back. I’ve missed you, as you can imagine. I’ve thought about you every single day,” Stewart said.

She blew a kiss and waved as she arrived to speak. The several hundred employees gave Stewart a standing ovation and applauded several other times as she spoke.

Stewart, 63, said she had had “the tremendous privilege” of meeting a cross-section of people in prison and “learned a great deal about our country.”

Investors, counting on a positive bounce from Stewart’s return, have bid up her company’s stock to triple the level it was when she was convicted on March 5, 2004, of lying about a stock sale.

Still, the company is struggling. Last week, it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $7.3 million, reflecting continued declining magazine advertising revenues and the hiatus of its syndicated daily cooking show starring Stewart.

Stewart will have to make some adjustments in her new working life.

Martha Stewart, left, is joined onstage by Susan Lyne, CEO and president of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, center, and board member Charles Koppelman as she addresses company employees Monday in New York.

She will be answering to a new chief executive and president, Susan Lyne, who replaced longtime confidante Sharon Patrick last November. Lyne greeted Stewart with a hug before the speech.

She also will be required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet under the terms of her five-month home detention.

The arrangement allows her 48 hours a week to work outside the home, and she will be commuting the 40 miles to her office from her home in Westchester County.

Outside of her corporate job, she also is scheduled to work on two television programs, which could challenge her confinement. She might be allowed to do some taping on her grounds — if she also gets a town permit.

But when she’s not on the job, Stewart will be confined to her home, unable to roam the grounds of her country estate.

Stewart was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the government about her 2001 sale of nearly 4,000 shares of the biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc., run by her longtime friend Sam Waksal.

Rebuffed twice in her attempts to obtain new trials, Stewart opted to enter prison early rather remain free pending her appeal.