Just a little news bit, for those of you interested in biz...
Full Version: [News] Fortune 500
Quite a few surprises there (well.. for someone like me, with little knowledge of finance, anyway).
Amazed how low Microsoft is in the list, and that Google doesn't even appear.
Quite disturbed by the preponderance of oil and car companies at the top of the list.
Also really surprised to see BP so high.
Amazed how low Microsoft is in the list, and that Google doesn't even appear.
Quite disturbed by the preponderance of oil and car companies at the top of the list.
Also really surprised to see BP so high.
I was a bit surprised that WalMart was the only retailer in the top ten, and the fact that 9 out of ten were Oil or Car companies just makes a sick kind of sense.
Considering all this guff about the need for high prices because of oil shortages, sick is right.
Two industries, highly reliant on each other and unwilling to change because well, if you have one, you'll need the other. Makes me want to just move back into downtown Chicago again and solely rely on the El and the alt.-fuel busses. Out here in the burbs, 1/6 of my salary goes solely to giving my car fuel. Once I graduate, I'm definitely giving up my car for good. Maybe I'll get a cheap little electric scooter.
When I went back to school I sold my car and either rode the bus or my bike everywhere. I was lucky, the bus was 50 feet from my back door and only cost me $50 per semester, and the bike was free.
Now that I am a mature (yeah, right!
) adult I am looking at making some capital investments in alternative energy production for home, and looking at electric cars too.
The petrochem industry is gonna be dead in 50 years. Start doing what you can now.
Now that I am a mature (yeah, right!
) adult I am looking at making some capital investments in alternative energy production for home, and looking at electric cars too.The petrochem industry is gonna be dead in 50 years. Start doing what you can now.
I have some neighbors moving. What irks me is how the people living next to them have set up solar panels on one side of their house (the one facing my neighbors), and suddenly my neighbors' house is worth less. It's worth less because the people next to them have alternative energy going on in their own home. Makes me really disappointed. I'd have hoped that such a thing
Honestly, while I know that my position out here in the suburbs would be in instant jeopardy were it to happen, I actually feel better (despite my finances hurting) when the prices at the pumps go up. The world is that much closer to being forced to give up these archaic fuel sources.
Honestly, while I know that my position out here in the suburbs would be in instant jeopardy were it to happen, I actually feel better (despite my finances hurting) when the prices at the pumps go up. The world is that much closer to being forced to give up these archaic fuel sources.
| QUOTE (Witness) |
| Quite a few surprises there (well.. for someone like me, with little knowledge of finance, anyway). Amazed how low Microsoft is in the list, and that Google doesn't even appear. Quite disturbed by the preponderance of oil and car companies at the top of the list. Also really surprised to see BP so high. |
The fact that lots of Web Companies (Google, Yahoo etc.) aren't in this shouldn't suprise anyone. Internet companies have very little in the way of actual assets. They usually don't own much land or capital equipment and frequently have a lot of their value tied up in their own stock. Oil Companies and large scale manufactuerers followed closely by banks almost always top the Fortune 500 because they have vast amounts of real assets. It will probably be several years before an Internet company makes it in, and I would bet on a Etail company like Amazon (who actually has warehouses and inventory) long before a content company like Google.
What I found interesting were the Arrivals and Exits lists, particularly the number of Chinese Companies on the Arrivals list. That's an investment trend worth watching.
| QUOTE (stevebugge) |
| The fact that lots of Web Companies (Google, Yahoo etc.) aren't in this shouldn't suprise anyone. Internet companies have very little in the way of actual assets. They usually don't own much land or capital equipment and frequently have a lot of their value tied up in their own stock. Oil Companies and large scale manufactuerers followed closely by banks almost always top the Fortune 500 because they have vast amounts of real assets. |
Isn't Fortune 500 solely based on revenues still, as opposed to assets value, or profits or market value (unlike the Forbes list, which makes up a composite ranking with all those value)
| QUOTE (Nath) | ||
Isn't Fortune 500 solely based on revenues still, as opposed to assets value, or profits or market value (unlike the Forbes list, which makes up a composite ranking with all those value) |
I might be mixing the two up, but even then:
Google Revenue 7.14 Billion
Nike 14.95 Billion (#500)
General Motors 199.08 Billion (#5)
Exxon-Mobile 338.61 Billion (#1)
The only reason Google even gets attention in the business world is it's stock price, which is stupidly high, based on expectations of increased revenues/earnings in the future.
At the time of this post google is 413.63 per share, it's earning per share is 5.70, meaning it has a Price to Earings ration around 72.57. It's a really bad stock to buy for that reason in my opinion. When you consider that most traders consider a Price to Earning ratio higher than 20 to be overvalued. Another statistic to look at is profit margin, Google's is 23.66%.
General Motors isn't a good investment right now either though because they are losing (Ok hemoraging is probably more accurate) money right now, and aren't showing much sign of turning things around in the short term.
On the other hand, General Motors' Credit division is in a tight and heavily interesting situation, since they're the only part of the corp that's making money.
| QUOTE (Calvin Hobbes) |
| On the other hand, General Motors' Credit division is in a tight and heavily interesting situation, since they're the only part of the corp that's making money. |
GMAC is doing fairly well, I bet it's a key card to be played in the talks with Nissan and Renault. I wouldn't be to suprised to see some kind of merger or new partnership coming out of those talks.
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