Tracking the business of business is a thriving industry. Each year, Fortune magazine ranks the 500 largest companies in the country based on several factors. This list, the Fortune 500, has become synonymous with industry giants. The list only ranks publicly traded companies, and is watched by investors as a clue to the performance of many of the nation's largest corporations.
Overall Revenues
The Fortune 500 ranks companies by their gross revenues, regardless of most other factors. A company such as General Motors, which grossed $183.2 billion in 2009, but operated at a net loss of $30.86 billion, ranks higher than 3M, which grossed $25.27 billion but declared a $3.46 billion profit in the same period. In 2010, Walmart scored the top spot on the list with $408 billion in revenue, although the No. 2 company on the list, Exxon Mobil, posted profits nearly 33 percent higher than Walmart's.
Other Rankings
Fortune also investigates other factors that influence a company's overall performance. The magazine rates companies by their sales growth, measuring sales changes against the year's overall economic activity. The list also ranks companies by the value of their combined assets and their capitalization, which measures the company's overall revenues and debts against the number of outstanding shares of stock it issued. These rankings help investors paint an overall picture of American business' most important companies.
Top 10 2010
Companies in the Fortune 500 Top 10 provide a glimpse of some of the most important sectors of the economy. The largest 10 companies on the 2010 list include retail companies, such as Walmart Stores, and manufacturing, with Ford Motor, General Electric and Hewlett-Packard represented. Financial companies -- Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. -- and oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips -- are heavily represented. Telecommunications provider AT&T also made it into the list's Top 10. Although positions on the list change each year, the overall makeup of the Fortune 500 is relatively stable between years.
Comprable Rankings
Although the Fortune 500 is the gold standard for blue-chip stock listings, Fortune also produces additional rankings. The Fortune 1,000 lists America's top 1,000 publicly traded companies. The Fortune Global 500 expands the scope of the rankings worldwide, and also incorporates American companies into the list. The Fortune Global 2,000 ranks the world's largest 2,000 companies by revenues and serves as a global version of the Fortune 1,000.
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