24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings: Week 18

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. Banks dropped to the bottom of the list based on growing investigations. Disney topped the rankings on its earnings and strength in studio business. Apple moved up as it gained ground on the Google Nexus one and Research-in-Motion Blackberry

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Disney	1 (3)	DIS	“Iron Man 2” stays hot. Most analysts like quarterly numbers as EPS rises sharply to $.48 from $.33 in the same period last year.
	Apple	2 (5)	APPL	Despite cloak and dagger interest in stolen Macs and iPhones, Apple wireless initiative gains as Google cuts online sales of Android-based Nexus One.
	Coca-Cola	3 (1)	KO	Goldman says soda pop sales will pick up with the economy along with tooth decay. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. subsidiary posts good numbers.
	McDonald’s	4 (2)	MCD	April sales surge in US and overseas as Ronald sees increase in McNugget sales. Could be trouble in coffee business as Starbucks goes down market.
	Philip Morris	5 (4)	PM	Chief Executive Louis C. Camilleri tells attendees at annual meeting that sales are picking up. Yield moves to attractive 5%. Who needs a savings account?
	Berkshire Hathaway	6 (6)	BRK	Non-insurance businesses in Buffett company start to do well as economy recovers, helping earnings diversification.
	Oracle	7 (10)	ORCL	Rival SAP gets desperate and overpays for Sybase. Enterprise tech sector signals strong growth on IBM sales forecasts.
	IBM	8 (9)	IBM	CEO tells annual meeting the earnings per share should hit $20 by 2015. Impossible to tell, but market reacts well. Big Blue crushes the DJIA last week, moving up 5%.
	Ford	9 (7)	F	New survey shows quality perception of auto firm’s cars improves. But, darling of the industry faces questions about European sales and future of huge debt load.
	Abbott Labs	10 (8)	ABT	Makes big move with GSK to increase sales in emerging markets. Will need success with the initiative to keep sales pace.
	Wal-Mart	11 (11)	WMT	Will release quarterly earnings with high expectations. Lack of exposure in Europe makes the shares veryattractive.
	Intel	12 (14)	INTC	Rival Nvidia seems to be losing market share. Intel and Google launch new TV initiative.
	Proctor & Gamble	13 (15)	PG	The Consumer Product Safety Commission will examine whether new Pampers cause rashes. It doesn’t matter. Company says sales are strong.
	Johnson & Johnson	14 (13)	JNJ	Experts comment that conditions at Tylenol plant were “shocking” when examined after sales recall. Barron’s says to pay no attention. Shares are still a “buy”.
	Cisco	15 (12)	CSCO	Shares get thrashed as the tech firm posts good numbers and lackluster forecast. CFO says the company plans a dividend. With its cash balance, better late than never.
	GE	16 (16)	GE	NBC cancels “Law & Order” to save money. Comcast efforts to get NBCU appear to improve as it makes its case for buying GE dog.
	Exxon-Mobil	17 (17)	XOM	Hurt by falling oil prices. Helped by not being BP plc.
	Microsoft	18 (23)	MSFT	CFO says tech spending is rising. New Office product should give Google Apps a run for their money.
	Pfizer	19 (18)	PFE	Gains rights to promising Ergonex pulmonary arterial hypertension drug. Sets up another round of layoffs to improve those margins at any cost.
	Dow Chemical	20 (20)	DOW	Holds dividend at current level, so yield is over 2%. Shareholders reject plan to allow themselves say on executive pay so Dow management can take whatever its wants to.
	American Express	21 (19)	AXP	Makes risky effort to buy RBS payment-processing business. And, government plans to give credit card fees a haircut.
	Hewlett-Packard	22 (22)	HPQ	Experts say HP may bid for Sybase. Mark Hurd is not that dumb. Mr. Softy CFO’s prediction about tech spending should comfort HP shareholders.
	FedEx	23 (21)	FDX	Industry report says air freight volume recovery may take another decade. But, shorter term Europe exposure is bad. Falling oil prices are good.
	Home Depot	24 (28)	HD	It’s good to have almost no exposure in Europe when the continent is imploding. HD outperforms the market. Also, so signs foreclosure rates may have leveled.
	Boeing	25 (30)	BA	Dreamliner makes more progress toward release. Currency exchange rates could hurt company in several large markets. Several politicians are pushing firm’s bid for Air Force tanker.
	Verizon	26 (29)	VZ	Drum beat about telecom firm getting to market iPhone get louder. Smaller rival T-Mobile is losing customers and there are not many places for them to go other than Verizon.
	Google	27 (24)	GOOG	Losing US search share to competition. Facebook is challenging for largest number of visits. None of it makes a difference now. Google still makes all the money.
	Caterpillar	28 (27)	CAT	Shares hurt on European economy concerns. But a look east shows China GDP still up double digests. Sunny side up.
	JP Morgan	29 (25)	JPM	Hard to make a case now for any bank, even the best run one. Growing number of investigations into CDO trading and ratings agency relationships.
	Bank of America	30 (26)	BAC	Faces same trouble at JPM and GS. At least BAC has a large retail and commercial bank business to cushion the blow—a bit.
	AT&T	31 (32)	T	Google and Verizon set plan to take on Ma Bell’s iPad deal. Company still likely to lose exclusivity on iPhone this year.
	Goldman Sachs	32 (31)	GS	Read the papers. How could it get any worse? At least management is still rich. But where are the shareholder’s yachts?

Douglas A. McIntyre

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