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The 116-year-old company catapulted from
No.104 last year on the strength of its
brands, its marketing, and its farsighted
management team. Last year's No.1, Tyco
International Ltd., which has seen its stock
plunge amid questions about its accounting,
falls to No.45.
The BW50 Class of '02 is a far more diverse
group than earlier rankings. Following Johnson
& Johnson are Freddie Mac, Pfizer, MBNA,
and Phillip Morris. Rounding out the top
ten are KLA - Tencor, Fannie Mae, Lowe's,
Best Buy and AmerisourceBergen.
BusinessWeek notes the one-two punch of
the recession and the implosion last fall
of energy trader Enron Corp. have resulted
in one of the most dramatic changes in the
composition of the BW50 since its inception
in 1997. After accounting for nearly half
of the BW50 two years ago and garnering
16 spots last year, only three tech and
telecom companies made this year's list:
KLA- Tencor (No.6), First Data (No.44),
and Electronic Data Systems (No.48)--all
newcomers to the list. Altogether, only
17 companies from the Class of '01 are making
a repeat appearance on the 2002 BW50 list,
including Merck, the only company to make
the list every year since its inception.
"This changing of the guard resulted
in a list of top performers that tilts away
from the flashy growth companies of the
bubble years and back to some of the stalwarts
of the Old Economy ," BusinessWeek
reports. "Put another way, this was
the year that beer, bath towels, and Band-Aids
became cool again." Consumer goods
makers Philip Morris (No.5) and PepsiCo
(No.39) climbed aboard the BW50 list this
year for the first time ever. Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. ascended from No.125 last year to No.14,
just as its sales surpassed those of ExxonMobil
Corp., making it the largest company in
the world. And the health-care sector, which
placed only four companies in 2001, muscled
in with 10 this year. While they can't all
claim the turbocharged growth rates the
tech stars posted at their peak, BusinessWeek
notes, this year's group performs an even
more impressive feat: demonstrating an ability
to prosper in both good times and bad.
Presented in a special issue of BusinessWeek
published this week, the BW50 list ranks
every company in the S&P 500 index on
eight key criteria of financial success:
sales, profits, and return to shareholders.
To reward consistency, performance is measured
over both one year and three years. To get
a better fix on which companies squeeze
the most out of operations, BusinessWeek
also analyzes profit margins and return
on equity. "Realizing that it is much
more difficult for the largest companies
to post big percentage gains, we have given
more weight this year to absolute sales,"
notes Stephen B. Shepard, BusinessWeek's
Editor-in-Chief.
BusinessWeek also excluded five companies
from the rankings because of significant
questions about their accounting. Qwest
Communications International, WorldCom,
Nvidia, PNC Financial Services Group, and
Computer Associates International face questions
on issues ranging from accounting for reserves
to off- balance-sheet debt. All have recently
disclosed that the Securities & Exchange
Commission is investigating their accounting.
"With these questions unresolved,"
notes BusinessWeek, "we felt we could
not include the companies in our ranking."
The 2002 BusinessWeek 50 are:
1 Johnson & Johnson JNJ
2 Freddie Mac FRE
3 Pfizer PFE
4 MBNA KRB
5 Philip Morris MO
6 KLA-Tencor KLAC
7 Fannie Mae FNM
8 Lowe's LOW
9 Best Buy BBY
10 AmerisourceBergen ABC
11 UnitedHealth Group UNH
12 Exelon EXC
13 Home Depot HD
14 Wal-Mart Stores WMT
15 Dynegy DYN
16 General Dynamics GD
17 Phillips Petroleum P
18 Forest Laboratories FRX
19 H&R Block HRB
20 Calpine CPN
21 Occidental Petroleum OXY
22 Sysco SYY
23 Pulte Homes PHM
24 Marathon Oil MRO
25 Citigroup C
26 Tenet Healthcare THC
27 Household International HI
28 WellPoint Health Networks WLP
29 Washington Mutual WM
30 Duke Energy DUK
31 Kohl's KSS
32 Bed Bath & Beyond BBBY
33 Cardinal Health CAH
34 Centex CTX
35 American Electric Power AEP
36 Golden West Financial GDW
37 Stryker SYK
38 Harley-Davidson HDI
39 PepsiCo PEP
40 Merck MRK
41 Apache APA
42 Amerada Hess AHC
43 KB Home KBH
44 First Data FDC
45 Tyco International TYC
46 International Game Technology IGT
47 Capital One Financial COF
48 Electronic Data Systems EDS
49 Nabors Industries NBR
50 Xcel Energy XEL
Beginning March 26th, BusinessWeek Online
(www.businessweek.com/bw50/)
will provide continual coverage of the BusinessWeek
50 throughout the year including comprehensive
profiles of BW50 companies in it's "Street
Wise" column, the BW50 interactive
scoreboard with daily, monthly and quarterly
updates, a special stock screener for ranking
companies based on the magazine's BW50 criteria,
plus video interviews with BW50 experts.
Additional BW50 content on BusinessWeek
Online will include scoreboards and tables
of S&P's Midcap 400 and Smallcap 600-index
companies, plus BW50-related articles throughout
the year.
Copyright (c) 2002 Business
Wire
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