Forbes: America’s Top Public Companies

By Forbes, Special for USADC.

Forbes released today the inaugural list of America’s Top Public Companies, 500 of the largest companies in the United States, ranked by sales, profit, assets and market cap.  To compile this ranking, Forbes created four separate lists of the 500 biggest companies in each of the metrics.  Each company received a separate score for each metric based on where it ranked on the 500 list.  Forbes used a composite score that weighed those four metrics equally.

In total, the top 500 public companies in the U.S. account for $11.1 trillion in revenues, $931 billion in profits, $39.66 trillion in assets and $21.1 trillion in market value.  All corners of the American economy are represented, from aerospace and defense to utilities and technology.

Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway takes the No.1 spot as America’s top public company.  The Omaha-based investment company is ranked #2 in sales, #3 in profit, #11 for assets and #5 for market value.  Apple comes in at No. 2, with the largest market cap and biggest profits of all the ranked companies.  Major banks round out the top 5 – JPMorgan Chase (No.3), Wells Fargo (No.4), and Bank of America (No.5).

“After nearly 15 years of ranking the largest companies in the world with the Global 2000 list, we felt it was time to take a closer look at the biggest, most valuable and most powerful companies in America,” said Forbes Statistics Editor Andrea Murphy. “The 500 companies on this list make up a huge part of the U.S. economy and employ nearly 27 million people.”

The Top 20 Public Companies in the U.S.

For the full list, please visit https://www.forbes.com/top-public-companies/.

We ask that you please not list more than 10 companies consecutively and to include a link back for Forbes.com in any online coverage.  Please let me know if you would like to speak with an editor to discuss the list.