Wal-Mart Tops Fortune 500 List

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. retained the top spot in Fortune magazine's 2005 ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies, but soaring commodity prices led to big gains in revenues and profits for oil and metal producers.

Wal-Mart was No. 1 on the Fortune 500 for the fourth straight year, with 2004 sales of more than $288.189 billion, up about 11 percent from 2003.

Exxon Mobil Corp. ranked second once again with $270.772 billion in sales, up a stunning 27 percent from the year before as the price of oil rose above $50 a barrel and gasoline sold for more than $2 a gallon. The company also topped Fortune's profits charts for the second year in a row with $25.3 billion in earnings, breaking Ford Motor Co.'s record from 1998.

Time Warner Inc.'s Fortune magazine first published the sales rankings in 1954, and since then only Wal-Mart, General Motors Corp. and Exxon Mobil have topped the lists. The latest annual rankings are included in the edition arriving at newsstands on April 11.

The only change in the top 10 came as International Business Machines Corp. slipped a rung to No. 10 with $96.293 billion in sales and American International Group Inc. -- now facing a government probe for improper accounting -- edged up to No. 9 from No. 10 with $98.610 billion.

Automakers GM and Ford ranked No. 3 and No. 4 respectively, despite GM's $2 billion drop in sales to $193.517 billion from 2003. General Electric Co. came in fifth with $152.363 billion, followed by oil companies ChevronTexaco Corp. with $147.967 billion and ConocoPhillips with $121.663 billion -- both beneficiaries of rising oil product prices and Citigroup Inc. with $108.276 billion.

Thirty-eight of the 42 industry sectors that Fortune tracked posted increased profits, while electronics and electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and airlines suffered profit declines.

With China's surging demand for raw materials and commodity prices reaching new heights, metal producers witnessed the most impressive profit growth over the past year, with gains of more than 800 percent.

"If a company's taking stuff out of the ground, it was making money," Fortune writer Janice Revell said. Aluminum company Alcoa Inc. at No. 79 saw a 40 percent rise in profits, while copper miner Phelps Dodge Corp. increased profits 11-fold.

"We're seeing old-fangled, low-glamour companies at the forefront," Revell said. She added that the housing sector saw big gains thanks to low interest rates last year, allowing some new homebuilders to make the list.

The list's most notable debut was media conglomerate News Corp. at No. 98. The company, owned by Rupert Murdoch, moved its headquarters from Australia to the United States last year and recently increased its ownership of Fox Entertainment Group Inc.

Meanwhile, glaringly absent from the upper echelons of the Fortune 500 was insurer Fannie Mae, which ranked at No. 20 last year but failed to file 2004 financial statements due to accounting problems.

Shareholders saw good returns from Fortune 500 companies over the past year, as the Fortune 500 index measured a total return of 10.3 percent in 2004.

More than half of the 500 companies added employees in 2004, but it's likely most of them were overseas. Fortune examined data from 45 companies on the list that voluntarily provide employment figures, and found foreign employment rose by 9.6 percent, while U.S. employment rose by less than 1 percent.

The Fortune 100 ranking of the nation's largest companies compiled by Fortune magazine on the basis of 2004 revenue. Each entry includes rank, name of company, headquarters, last year's rank and 2004 revenue in billions of dollars.

1. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville, Ark., 1, $288.189
2. Exxon Mobil Corp., Irving, Texas, 2, $270.772
3. General Motors Corp., Detroit, 3, $193.517
4. Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., 4, $172.233
5. General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn., 5, $152.363
6. ChevronTexaco Corp., San Ramon, Calif., 6, $147.967
7. ConocoPhillips, Houston, 7, $121.663
8. Citigroup Inc., New York, 8, $108.276
9. American International Group,Inc., New York, 10, $98.610
10. International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY, 9, $96.293
11. Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif., 11, $79.905
12. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Omaha, Neb., 14, $74.382
13. The Home Depot Inc., Atlanta, 13, $73.094
14. Verizon Communications Inc., New York, 12, $71.5633
15. McKesson Corp., San Francisco, 16, $69.5061
16. Cardinal Health Inc., Dublin, Ohio, 17, $65.1306
17. Altria Group Inc., New York, 15, $64.440
18. Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., 24, $63.324
19. State Farm Insurance Cos., Bloomington, Ill., 18, $58.8189
20. JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, 26, $56.931
21. The Kroger Co., Cincinnati, 19, $56.4344
22. Valero Energy Corp., San Antonio, 34, $53.9186
23. AmerisourceBergen Corp., Chesterbrook, Pa., 22, $53.179
24. Pfizer Inc., New York, 25, $52.921
25. Boeing Co., Chicago, 21, $52.553
26. The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, 28, $51.407
27. Target Corp., Minneapolis, 23, $49.934
28. Dell Inc., Round Rock, Texas, 31, $49.205
29. Costco Wholesale Corp., Issaquah, Wash., 29, $48.107
30. Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J., 30, $47.348
31. Marathon Oil Corp., Houston, 35, $45.444
32. Time Warner Inc., New York, 27, $42.869
33. SBC Communications Inc., San Antonio, 33, $41.098
34. The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., 44, $40.161
35. Albertson's, Boise, Idaho, 38, $40.052
36. Morgan Stanley, New York, 39, $39.549
37. MetLife Inc., New York, 36, $39.535
38. Walgreen Co., Deerfield, Ill., 45, $37.5082
39. United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn., 51, $37.445
40. UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn., 54, $37.218
41. Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., 46, $36.835
42. United Parcel Service Inc., Atlanta, 42, $36.582
43. Lowe's Companies Inc., Mooresville, N.C., 50, $36.464
44. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Decatur, Ill., 52, $36.1514
45. Sears, Roebuck and Co., Hoffman Estates, Ill., 32, $36.099
46. Safeway Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., 37, $35.8229
47. Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., 48, $35.526
48. Medco Health Solutions Inc., Franklin Lakes, N.J., 41, $35.3519
49. Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., 61, $35.349
50. Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., 53, $34.209

51. The Allstate Corp., Northbrook, Ill., 47, $33.936
52. Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, 49, $33.876
53. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., New York, 58, $32.467
54. The Walt Disney Co., Burbank, Calif., 60, $30.752
55. CVS Corp., Woonsocket, R.I., 63, $30.594.30
56. AT&T Corp., Bedminster, N.J., 40, $30.537
57. Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill., 77, $30.251
58. Northrop Grumman Corp., Los Angeles, 55, $29.868
59. The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., New York, 74, $29.839
60. Sysco Corp., Houston, 66, $29.3354
61. PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, N.Y., 62, $29.261
62. American Express Co., New York, 69, $29.115
63. Delphi Corp., Troy, Mich., 56, $28.700
64. Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J., 57, $28.348
65. Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C., 73, $28.067
66. E.I. du Pont de Nemours, Wilmington, Del., 59, $27.995
67. Sprint Corp., Overland Park, Kan., 65, $27.428
68. New York Life Insurance Co., New York, 70, $27.1755
69. Viacom Inc., New York, 64, $27.0548
70. International Paper Co., Stamford, Conn., 71, $26.722
71. Johnson Controls Inc., Milwaukee, 79, $26.5534
72. Tyson Foods Inc., Springdale, Ark., 72, $26.441
73. Caremark Rx Inc., Nashville, Tenn., 221, $25.8011
74. J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Plano, Texas, 43, $25.678
75. Honeywell International Inc., Morristown, N.J., 76, $25.601
76. Ingram Micro Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., 81, $25.4621
77. Best Buy Co. Inc., Richfield, Minn., 78, $24.901
78. FedEx Corp., Memphis, Tenn., 82, $24.710
79. Alcoa Inc., Pittsburgh, 86, $23.960
80. HCA Inc, Nashville, Tenn., 85, $23.502
81. TIAA-CREF, New York, 68, $23.4113
82. Sunoco Inc., Philadelphia, 123, $23.226
83. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Springfield, Mass., 90, $23.1592
84. Merck & Co. Inc., Whitehouse Station, N.J., 83, $22.9386
85. The St. Paul Travelers Companies Inc., St. Paul, Minn., 227, $22.934
86. Duke Energy, Charlotte, N.C., 75, $22.779
87. BellSouth Corp., Atlanta, 80, $22.729
88. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., 102, $22.693
89. Weyerhaeuser Co., Federal Way, Wash., 95, $22.665
90. MCI Inc., Ashburn, Va., $22.615
91. Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., 100, $22.045
92. The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, 91, $21.962
93. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., New York, 92, $21.886
94. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., New York, 113, $21.250
95. Electronic Data Systems, Plano, Texas, 87, $21.033
96. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., Houston, 155, $20.975.50
97. WellPoint Inc., Indianapolis, 119, $20.8151
98. News Corp., New York, new to list, $20.802
99. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Columbus, Ohio, 118, $20.558
100. Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill., 96, $20.4731

By Madlen Read