“The 64th annual Fortune 500 list is out this morning,” Alan Murray reports for Fortune. “With $12.8 trillion in revenue–2/3rds of U.S. GDP–and 28.2 million employees worldwide, these companies remain the most important engine of both the U.S. and the global economy.”
“Walmart topped the list, which ranks companies by revenue, for the sixth straight year in a row,” Murray reports. “Apple, the most valuable and profitable company on the list—$850 billion in market cap and $48 billion in profits—dropped one spot to No. 4 on the revenue ranking.”
“Amazon, clearly the most feared competitor on the list, cracked the top 10 for the first time, landing at No. 8,” Murray reports. “GE fell five spots to No. 18—its lowest ranking ever on the list. Xerox took the biggest plunge, dropping 129 spots to 291. The four most valuable companies on the list are all technology firms — Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was fifth; Facebook was sixth.”
“There are 53 companies that have been on the list every year since it started in 1955, including GE, GM, Chevron and Exxon Mobil. The oldest company on the list was started in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton — Bank of New York Mellon,” Murray reports. “The threshold for making this year’s list was $5.4 billion in revenues…up 6% from last year.”
The full Fortune 500 list is here.
MacDailyNews Note: Fortune’s Apple blurb:
Apple took a small step back, from No. 3 to No. 4, despite a 6% gain in annual sales, but it led the way in profits with more than $48 billion in net income. In short, the Apple juggernaut continues at tremendous scale and despite the overall saturation of smartphones, which make up the vast majority of the company’s sales and profits. In an unusual move, Apple introduced three new phones, the upgraded iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, as well as the redesigned iPhone X (pronounced “ten”), powered by facial-recognition technology. Services likes Apple Pay and Apple Music continued to rise too.
Call me back when the results are sorted and filtered in other ways, such as by profit, profit/revenue, etc.
Shareholders care about current and future profits per share.
#1 in net income – I’ll take that any day over top line revenues – like the golf term, drive for show, putt for dough! It shows that sometimes less is actually more!:-)