24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings: Week 15

The 24/7 Wall Street Corporate Power Rankings of the thirty-two most important companies in America are determined by earnings, analyst rankings, important corporate news, trends in each firm’s industry, product introductions, management strength and change, and credible rumors. It is, in effect, a new version of the DJIA.

The Corporate Power Rankings are released at midnight on each Sunday based on performance during the previous week.

Apple jumped to the top of the list on remarkable earnings. Ford fell off on concerns that it will have trouble paying off the debt it took on to avoid Chapter 11 during the recession.

Goldman Sachs fell to the bottom of the list due to the uncertainty of its legal  situation and worries that some of its clients may leave if the SEC case appears to strengthen.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Apple	1 (4)	APPL	Apple jumped in the No.2 spot in terms of market cap size among US companies. iPhone sales were shockingly good last quarter and iPad is an early hit. Shares hit all time high at $272.18.
	McDonald’s	2 (5)	MCD	McDonald’s profits were better than expected with same-store sales in some parts of the world up by over 5%. The notion that the company has any competition is gone.
	Disney	3 (1)	DIS	Disney studios plan to bring back dust off successful “Muppets” and “Monsters” franchises for new films. ESPN ratings are up nearly 25% with NFL draft programming.
	Berkshire Hathaway	4 (2)	BRK	Berkshire Hathaway says it is still ahead on its $5 billion Goldman investment. Several Berkshire holdings lead by American Express post big quarterly numbers.
	Coca-Cola	5 (6)	KO	Coca Cola produces big profits gains and appears to be winning global war against PepsiCo. The number of people who get drunk on sugar continues to rise.
	Ford	6 (3)	F	Ford is expected to pick up more US market share in the US during a April and was No.1 car company in Europe last month. But, Wall St. wonders how it will pay off all that debt.
	Abbott Labs	7 (7)	ABT	Abbott posts good earnings and its forecast for a place in the new healthcare world is strong, it says. Sales of wonder drug Humira keep rising.
	Johnson & Johnson	8 (11)	JNJ	Johnson & Johnson, to the joy of all, increases its dividend by 10%. Firm also posts first quarter gain and cash flow improves.
	IBM	9 (8)	IBM	IBM net up 13% but forecast is light. But, results from Microsoft and VMWare show that tech recovery is broadening, which should benefit Big Blue because of it breadth.
	Cisco	10 (9)	CSCO	Cisco picked up ground in Wall St.’s eyes by simply existing. Basks in light of strong tech earnings from major firms across the sector and enterprise computing recovery especially strong.
	Oracle	11 (14)	ORCL	Oracle should benefit from rise of cloud computing and numbers of firms with big enterprise virtualization operates are up.
	Philip Morris	12 (10)	PM	Philip Morris finds that Wall St. is upset that it profits rose but sales did not. World’s smoking population is quitting or dying off.
	Wal-Mart	13 (12)	WMT	Wal-Mart hurt by increasing perception that the middle class is shopping elsewhere after recession and that more and more people shop at Amazon.com.
	Intel	14 (17)	INTC	Intel is a net winner as earnings at hardware and software companies spike up.  Even mobile market improves. All of them need chips.
	Proctor & Gamble	15 (15)	PG	Procter & Gamble becomes another megacap to raise dividend—9.5%. Yield investors rejoice. P&G also cuts deal with new Oprah TV.
	Exxon-Mobil	16 (21)	XOM	Exxon Mobil get lift as crude moves above $85. RBC starts Exxon with price target of $80 compared to current $69. Oil co mpanyalso says drilling rates in California improve.
	Pfizer	17 (16)	PFE	Pfizer wins big patent case against generics giant. But, gets slap from FDA for being too loose with drug trial oversight.
	GE	18 (18)	GE	General Electric should be winner if Europe aerospace firm EADS wins Air Force tanker deal from Boeing. Market disappointed that GE did not up dividend.
	American Express	19 (26)	AXP	American Express posts walk-off home run earnings. Credit quality improves as economic recovery helps push down defaults. Rosy outlook, too.
	Hewlett-Packard	20 (25)	HPQ	Hewlett-Packard basks in the light of IBM software and services revenue strength. EMC results also point to strength in HP’s storage unit.
	Dow Chemical	21 (20)	DOW	Dow Chemical bounces as EU approves sales of coating unit to AkzoNobel. Investors expect that higher demand for petrochemicals will lift earnings to multi-quarter highs.
	FedEx	22 (19)	FDX	FedEx gets benefit as skies open over Europe. But, jet fuel prices are rocketing. Business shipping would have to stage miraculous recovery to offset that.
	Microsoft	23 (22)	MSFT	Microsoft earnings improve on colossal sales of Windows 7. The balance of the firm’s results is mediocre. Online operation still bleeding as Bing falters.
	JP Morgan	24 (23)	JPM	JPMorgan Chase emerging as strongest and least scandal plagued American megabank. Strong results from credit card companies point to improvement in JPM consumer credit ops.
	Google	25 (28)	GOOG	Google still weak market performer as some glitches in it Android mobile OS arise. Apple results also show that Google phone business has long way to go. New attempt by YouTube to get into movie rental business off to slow start.
	Caterpillar	26 (29)	CAT	Caterpillar gets small lift as perceptions of global manufacturing and infrastructure recovery. Boom and India and China lifts construction sector. Unless there is a trade war.
	Verizon	27 (13)	VZ	Verizon’s earning show that cell phone market growth is dead. Landline business died quarters ago. Fiber to the home TV is modest performer. Ouch.
	AT&T	28 (31)	T	AT&T’s earnings were even worse than Verizon’s and it has the iPhone. Fiber TV business making almost no gains against cable competition.
	Home Depot	29 (32)	HD	Home Depot gets shot from improved news home sales and expectation of strong sequential growth in existing home sales during March. And, it’s spring. Time to clean the yard.
	Bank of America	30 (27)	BAC	Bank of American faces pole-axing by Congress which wants either large bank tax of bank break up. Either way B o A loses ground.
	Boeing	31 (30)	BA	Boeing faces challenge from EADS for immensely profitable Air Force tanker contract. CEO still claims Europe is giving rival unfair support. But, Boeing is its own worst enemy as earnings forecast shows.
	Goldman Sachs	32 (24)	GS	Goldman Sachs—If it can get worse, it will.

Douglas A. McIntyre  [email protected]

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