Apple climbs from 56 to 35th place in Fortune 500
Apple has climbed 21 rungs in the Fortune 500 ranking of America's largest corporations, leaping from last year's spot at 56 to its current position at 35.
"The company not only continues to expand its reach in existing markets, it also keeps creating new ones," the report on Apple said.
In terms of revenues, Apple was well below the Fortune 500's top ten, pulling in $65 billion compared to the highest ranked Wal-Mart with $421 billion, Exxon Mobile with revenues of $354 billion, Chevron at $196 billion, and ConocoPhillips at $184 billion.
However, Apple's revenues grew 79 percent over last year, wildly outpacing the revenue growth of the top four US companies in that metric, all of which experienced between 3 and 33 percent growth. Apple's revenue growth outpaced every top ten company outside of fifth ranked Fannie Mae.
In terms of profits, Apple earned $14 billion, in contrast to the $16 billion earned by WalMart, $30 billion in profits from Exxon Mobile, $19 billion of Chevron, and $11 billion by ConocoPhillips.
Apple's annual profit growth of 146 percent was also higher than any other company in the top ten; number ten ranked Ford Motor came in second with 142 percent growth, but it earned less than half the profits of Apple despite revenues that were nearly twice as great.
Apple's profits as a percentage of revenues (21 percent), as a percentage of its assets (19 percent), and as a percentage of shareholder equity (29 percent) were all well ahead of every other firm in the Fortune 500 top ten.
Apple also returned investors 30 percent growth in earnings per share, again outranking every top ten ranked corporation, and provided an annualized total return to investors over the past decade of 46 percent, and over the past year of 53 percent.
That again makes Apple the best investment over the past decade than any other top ten ranked Fortune 500 company, and second behind Ford in appreciation over the last year (Ford returned 68 percent growth over the last year, but negative 1 percent growth over the last decade).
Apple achieved its results with 49,400 employees, fewer than any other top ten firm apart from ConocoPhillips and Fannie Mae although Apple also expanded its employee ranks the largest in 2010, growing jobs by 34 percent.
Only Fannie Mae and Berkshire Hathaway were able to generate double digit growth in jobs over the same period, with other top ten companies in the Fortune 500 either posting minimal 1 to 2 percent growth or contracting by as much as 17 percent, as did Ford.
"The company not only continues to expand its reach in existing markets, it also keeps creating new ones," the report on Apple said.
In terms of revenues, Apple was well below the Fortune 500's top ten, pulling in $65 billion compared to the highest ranked Wal-Mart with $421 billion, Exxon Mobile with revenues of $354 billion, Chevron at $196 billion, and ConocoPhillips at $184 billion.
However, Apple's revenues grew 79 percent over last year, wildly outpacing the revenue growth of the top four US companies in that metric, all of which experienced between 3 and 33 percent growth. Apple's revenue growth outpaced every top ten company outside of fifth ranked Fannie Mae.
In terms of profits, Apple earned $14 billion, in contrast to the $16 billion earned by WalMart, $30 billion in profits from Exxon Mobile, $19 billion of Chevron, and $11 billion by ConocoPhillips.
Apple's annual profit growth of 146 percent was also higher than any other company in the top ten; number ten ranked Ford Motor came in second with 142 percent growth, but it earned less than half the profits of Apple despite revenues that were nearly twice as great.
Apple's profits as a percentage of revenues (21 percent), as a percentage of its assets (19 percent), and as a percentage of shareholder equity (29 percent) were all well ahead of every other firm in the Fortune 500 top ten.
Apple also returned investors 30 percent growth in earnings per share, again outranking every top ten ranked corporation, and provided an annualized total return to investors over the past decade of 46 percent, and over the past year of 53 percent.
That again makes Apple the best investment over the past decade than any other top ten ranked Fortune 500 company, and second behind Ford in appreciation over the last year (Ford returned 68 percent growth over the last year, but negative 1 percent growth over the last decade).
Apple achieved its results with 49,400 employees, fewer than any other top ten firm apart from ConocoPhillips and Fannie Mae although Apple also expanded its employee ranks the largest in 2010, growing jobs by 34 percent.
Only Fannie Mae and Berkshire Hathaway were able to generate double digit growth in jobs over the same period, with other top ten companies in the Fortune 500 either posting minimal 1 to 2 percent growth or contracting by as much as 17 percent, as did Ford.
Comments
http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/05/a...-laptop-lines/
AI get on it!!!
If you look at FCF (OCF-CapEx), AAPL is near the top. It blows away WMT and will soon exceed XOM.
There are a half dozen ways to measure "how big" or "how valuable" a company is, however Fortune has chosen to use revenue as the yardstick.
Levered Free Cash Flow is a finer measurement, but not as commonly applied and not well understood by the general public.
In a way, it's like baseball statistics. Everyone understands the oldest baseball statistic: the batting average (BA), but Runs Batted In (RBI) is a better measurement of offensive worth. Then there are more recent statistical assessments like On-Base Percentage (OBP) or Slugging Percentage (SLG) which can be combined for On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS).
Considering Apple's growth since it's death-spiral, I can't understand why it isn't in the Top 10.
As others have said, they use revenue as the yardstick.
What is more interesting is the trajectory based on this year's predicted FY and then next. This year is looking like $105Bn conservatively and at least $140Bn in FY 2012. That gets them awfully close to top 10 and over doubling revenue (and profit no doubt) in 2 years.
That's when tongues loll and chins hit the floor (and Apple becomes worth more than Exxon Mobil).
Strap in, it's going to be an insane ride (but not very bumpy)
I bet Apple might very well even surpass Wal-Mart one day.
Seriously? They'd have to do 8 times the revenue as now.
How many people go weekly to Walmart and purchase numerous items?
How many people go to Apple monthly (or even yearly) and purchase numerous items?
As others have said, they use revenue as the yardstick.
What is more interesting is the trajectory based on this year's predicted FY and then next. This year is looking like $105Bn conservatively and at least $140Bn in FY 2012. That gets them awfully close to top 10 and over doubling revenue (and profit no doubt) in 2 years.
That's when tongues loll and chins hit the floor (and Apple becomes worth more than Exxon Mobil).
Strap in, it's going to be an insane ride (but not very bumpy)
I say kill the oil tax subsidies, and let XOM take a dive where it should be.
No need for USG to *pay* XOM to earn more profits. XOM can do it themselves.
AAPL should be top of the world if it weren't fore the legacy of the oil republicans.
Seriously? They'd have to do 8 times the revenue as now.
How many people go weekly to Walmart and purchase numerous items?
How many people go to Apple monthly (or even yearly) and purchase numerous items?
Walmart's revenues are going down... at some point (maybe 6x current WMT revenues) AAPL might take over... maybe in 2015 sometime.