Biggest Year

A decade ago, only five U.S. corporate giants boasted sales of more than $1 billion a year. Last week, with most annual reports for 1950 now tabulated, the number in industry's "billion-dollar league" had risen to a total of nineteen companies (see box).*

In sales as well as profits, General Motors was tops. And with a big slice of G.M. income to fatten its earnings, Du Pont, though it ranked only 13th in sales, stood fourth in profits. Contrariwise, some companies with big sales ranked relatively poorly in profits, because of traditionally slim profit margins. A notable example: A & P (which has not yet finished auditing its fiscal 1950 sales, but expects a tidy increase) ranks fifth in sales but only 16th in profits.

If any confirmation of industry's growth was needed, FTC and SEC provided it last week. They estimated the 1950 profits of all U.S. manufacturing companies at an alltime record of $23.2 billion before taxes, a 61% rise above 1949. Even the bigger corporate income taxes left a total net of $12.9 billion, a 43% gain. Moreover, the biggest gains were made by the smallest companies: a 106% average increase for those with assets under $250,000, v. a 31% rise for those above $100 million. But both big and little had to set aside such huge sums for plant expansion, rising inventory costs, etc., that stockholders got only about 40% of profits ($5.6 billion) in dividends. However, stockholders are faring better this year: all dividend payments for 1951's first quarter are 13% higher than in 1950.

* Privately owned Ford Motor Co., which does not report its sales publicly, is undoubtedly another.

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