On the Top-10 list of US companies of largest revenue, retailing giant Walmart (WMT) is followed by ecommerce and tech giant Amazon (AMZN), oil transnational ExxonMobil (XOM), technology leader and iPhone maker Apple (AAPL), and healthcare brand UnitedHealth Corp (UNH) at the top half in the same order. At the bottom half are pharma player CVS Health (CVS), investment major Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL), pharma retailer McKesson Corp (MCK), and pharma distributed AmerisourceBergen Corp (COR). They have a huge impact on the economy by contributing heavily to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and influencing the markets.
Let us take a detailed look at the Top-10 companies, as per filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):
Retail giant Walmart tops US companies by revenue recording revenue of $611.29 billion last year. A multinational retail corporation headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, Walmart operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores globally. Under the leadership of CEO Doug McMillon, it is one of the world's largest companies by revenue.
The company’s annual revenue of $611.29 billion was an increase of 6.73% from the previous year’s $572.75 billion. However, the performance in the previous year was 2.43% less than the year earlier at $559.15 billion. The company’s net income was $11.29 billion, a 19% drop from the previous year’s $13.94 billion, bucking the trend of growing revenue during the period. Last year’s profit was 1.71% over the previous annual profit of $13.71 billion. The company’s diluted earnings per share of $4.27 was a slight drop from $4.87 in the previous year, which was $4.75 in the year earlier.
Amazon, which started as an online bookstore and rapidly expanded into various sectors, notched up annual revenue of $514 billion in 2022, the last full year of reporting. Now led by CEO Andy Jassy, the company founded by Jeff Bezos is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and dominates e-commerce, digital streaming, cloud computing, and more, making it a tech behemoth.
The company’s revenue performance was 9.4% higher from its achievement of $469.82 billion in 2021. In the previous year when the global economies were ravaged by COVID-19 pandemic, the company bucked the trend by achieving revenue growth of 21.7% from $386.06 billion.
The company registered a surprising $2.7 billion net loss in 2022 despite its revenue growth prompting a series of layoffs. Amazon recorded $33.36 billion profit the previous year, up from $21.33, a year earlier. The company’s diluted earnings per share was -$0.27, a sharp decline from $3.24 in the previous year, up from $2.09.
A global leader in the energy sector, ExxonMobil has benefited from the higher global oil prices in volatile market conditions triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Specializing in petroleum exploration, production, and refining, the Irving, Texas, based company generated total revenue of $398.67 billion the latest reporting year, up by 44.09% from $276.69 billion in the previous period. Revenue in the last period was a massive 54.96% higher than the year earlier when it was $178.57 billion.
The energy major, which suffered a net loss of $22.44 billion two years back, showed a robust profit of $55.74 billion in the current year, after recovering to $23.04 profit in the previous year. ExxonMobil’s diluted earnings per share in the reporting year was $13.26, up from $5.39 in the previous year. The year 2020 was dismal for the company’s business forcing the earnings per share into the negative territory of -$5.25.
The makers of iconic brands like iPhone and Mac, Cupertino, California, based Apple is the third highest revenue earner among US companies. Under CEO Tim Cook, the company designs, manufactures, and markets consumer electronics and software, most notably the iPhone, Mac, and iOS. With its innovative products, Apple has set industry standards and boasts a global fanbase. The company’s last reported annual revenue of $394.33 billion was 7.79% higher than the previous year’s $365.82 billion. Last year saw a whopping 33.26% increase over the year before that when the revenue was $274.52 billion, hit by the pandemic and the supply chain bottleneck.
The company has recorded a net Income of $99.8 billion in the current period, slightly higher than $94.68 billion the year before and $57.41 billion two years back. Apple’s robust performance translated into a $6.11 in diluted earnings per share, an increase from two years back’s $3.28 billion and the previous year’s $5.61.
One of the giants in the healthcare and insurance sectors, UnitedHealth Corp, headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, generated $324.16 billion in revenue, which was 12.71% over the previous year’s $287.6 billion. Last year’s revenue of the company, which offers health insurance and health services under CEO David S. Wichmann, was 11.84% more than the previous year’s $257.14 billion. The company suffered minor profitable despite the challenges of global pandemic and the universal curbs on people mobility. UnitedHealth garnered $20.64 billion in 2022, which was a marked improvement from $17.73 billion in the previous year. The company’s profit in 2020 was $15.77 billion. It’s diluted earnings per share, however, dipped to $3.14 in 2022 from $5.95 and $5.46 in the previous two years in that order.
A multifaceted healthcare company, CVS Health, which is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, notched up $322.47 billion in revenue last year. This was 10.39% more than the previous year which was $292.11 billion. The company that offers retail pharmacy, pharmacy benefits management, and healthcare services under the leadership of CEO Karen S. Lynch grew its revenue by 8.71 % from $268.71 billion in 2020. Despite the increase in revenue, the company’s profits took a 47.27% hit last year, slumping to $4.17 billion from $7.89 billion year over year. The company registered a 9.82% rise in profit the previous year from $7.19 billion. CVS Health shareholders received diluted earnings of $3.14 per share last year when compared to $5.95 in 2021. The diluted EPS was 5.46 in 2020.
A diversified conglomerate led by the iconic investor Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, recorded $302.09 billion in revenue. The performance was 9.37% above the previous year’s $276.2 billion, which was a robust 12.47% leap over the 2020 revenue of $245.58 billion. The firm, which holds a vast array of businesses from insurance to utilities, and from freight rail to confectionery, made a net loss of $22.06 billion in 2022 despite an increase in the revenue and having made a profit of $90.81 billion in 2021. The shareholders’ return (diluted) on each share last year was negative $15,535, declining steeply from $59,460. The company generated a profit of $43.25 billion the previous year resulting a 110% rise year over year. The diluted earnings per share in 2020 was $26,668.
The parent company of Google and several other businesses, Alphabet, based in Mountain View, California, notched up $282.84 billion in revenue in 2022, up by 9.78% from $257.64 billion in the previous year. The company’s oversees ventures in online advertising, and cloud computing, grew rapidly helping it grow its revenue from $182.53 billion in 2020. The global conglomerate, helmed by Sundar Pichai, saw 41.15% jump in revenue in 2021 over the previous year. The global economic headwinds reduced the company’s profit to $59.97 billion in 2022 from $76.03 billion in 2021. The company’s diluted earnings per share also suffered set back, falling to $4.56 from $5.61. Coming out of the pandemic-caused economic turmoil the company’s profit had registered 88.81% rise in 2021 over $40.27 billion in 2020. The company’s diluted earnings per share in 2020 was $2.93.
The healthcare supply chain management major, McKesson, Inc., operating from Irving, Texas, returned $276.71 billion in revenue in 2022, up 4.83% from $263.96 billion in the previous year. The company led by CEO Brian Tyler, recorded $3.72 billion in profit in 2022, giving its shareholders diluted earnings per share of $25.03. The company, which is pivotal in healthcare supply chain management, notched up profit of $1.28 billion, in 2021, following a remarkable turnaround from $4.34 billion loss in 2020 when its revenue was $238.23 billion. Heavily involved in pharmaceutical distribution, health technology, and medical supplies, the company’s diluted earnings per share in 2021 was $7.23 in 2021, after a dismal -$28.26 in 2020.
A cornerstone in pharmaceutical sourcing and distribution, AmerisourceBergen, which provides vital services to healthcare providers, realized revenue of $238.59 billion up 11.5% from $214 billion in the previous year. The company set the trend in increasing revenue with a 12.69% rise in 2021 from $189.89 billion the previous year. Based in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, and led by CEO Steven H. Collis, the company with a significant role in the medical supply chain managed $1.67 billion profit in 2022, up from $1.54 billion in the previous year picking up a steady turnaround from $3.4 billion loss in 2020. The company’s diluted earnings per share that was in the negative territory in 2020, recovered to $7.39 in 2021 and $8.04 last year.
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