The most iconic list in American business journalism--Fortune's roster of the top 500/1000 US companies ranked by revenues--came out today online and will appear in the magazine's May 5 issue.
The semiconductor sector fared fair to middling, especially when you examined some of the secondary categories. The Walton Gang (Wal-Mart) and the ExxMob (ExxonMobil) led the parade of the corporate elite.
To no one's surprise, Intel tops the "semiconductor and other electronic components" pack, moving up from its 2007 ranking of 62 to the 60th slot overall, sandwiched between soda-pop giants Pepsi and tobacco peddlers Altria. Hewlett-Packard and IBM, though not classified as semi companies, come in at 14th and 15th, respectively, the same positions as they held last year. Texas Instruments garners the 185th honors, backsliding from the 162nd slot it held last year. Applied Materials remains the top-ranked semi equipment outfit, moving up four spots from 274 to 270 year over year. AMD and Micron round out the sector's top 500 representation, coming in at 406 and 427, respectively.
Other semi-familiar faces in the upper half include Apple (103), Google (150), Motorola (65), Honeywell (73), Dow Chem (42), Parker Hannifin (247), Air Products (258), Praxair (278), Rohm and Haas (295), Qualcomm (297), and Agilent (443). Three semi equipment and materials companies made the lower half of the draw: KLA-Tencor, which moves up from 837 to 721 this year; Lam, which jumps from 967 to 759, and MEMC, which makes the list for the first time at 913. Fallling out of the top 1000 was Novellus, which ranked 960th in 2007.
The Fortune folks load the listings with all kinds of categories, subcategories, and search options. A sampling reveals several instances that might drive many in the semiconductor and electronic components community to drink. Heavily.
AMD made a top 10 showing... as one of the biggest losers of the year. The chipmaker's $3 billion-plus of red ink garners the fourth position in that category, between subprime freefall beneficiaries Merrill Lynch and Freddie Mac. To make matters worse, AMD is the only company among the top 8 losers that was not in the top 100 in revenues.
Compared to other industries' revenue growth, profitability, and investment performance, the semiconductor industry's rankings look pretty dismal. The sector ranks 31st out of 52 in terms of revenue for the year (at 6.4%), but 46th out of 49 for yearly profits (a stunning -38.8%). The news is no better in the profitability list, with the chippies coming in at 50th out of 52 on return on revenue (0.6%), 47th out of 52 on return on assets (1.2%), and 49th out of 51 on return on shareholder's equity (3%). The best investments category finds the semi sector sobering up to a 47th out of 49 ranking in terms of returns to shareholders (-3.7%) and 44 out of 46 for the same measure over the past five years.
Individual semi companies saw decent standing in a few of the profitability categories. TI, Intel, and AMAT came in 33rd, 35th, and 38th, respectively, in the return on revenues derby (a category in which Qualcomm earned the number-two slot), while Intel came in just behind H-P on the overall profits list, at number 20--although no chip concern cracked the return on shareholders' equity top 50.
To check out all the bells and whistles of this year's Fortune 500, click here. For a list of hundreds of cocktail recipes, drink here.
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