Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Massachusetts Big Corps Report Very High Quality Earnings Growth in 2010

With the horrible jobless recovery, Massachusetts State financial coffers are severely suffering, as are many State citizens in Massachusetts.

However, I think it would be wise to get an update on how Massachusetts Big Corps have fared very recently, so we can better assess where Massachusetts Big Corps stand now financially, as compared with the present financial status of Massachusetts citizens.

With this update, I think we can get a better insight on what should constitute a fair sharing of the financial burden to balance the State Budget between Massachusetts Big Corps and Massachusetts citizens. And frankly, Big Corps outside of Massachusetts, including foreign-owned Big Corps, that do business in Massachusetts, should also be included in this mix of a fair sharing of this very expensive financial burden to balance the State Budget of Massachusetts.

Let me show you below just how Massachusetts' 24 largest publicly-held Corps did as was disclosed in either their most recent annual Fiscal Year Ended (FYE) 2010 earnings releases or in their most recent SEC annual report filings:

Massachusetts 24 Largest Publicly-Held Corps Most Recent Annual Pretax Earnings (PTI)

...................................................................................Increase....
.........................................FYE.......PTI.......PTI(L).....(Decrease)...
Massachusetts Big Corp...2010......2010......2009.....Amount....%..
.......................................................(millions of dollars)......

EMC..................................Dec…...2,608......1,375......1,233....90%
Raytheon..........................Dec…...2,432......2,930......(498)..(17)%
Liberty Mutual Group(1)...Dec…...2,315......1,210......1,105.....91%
TJX................................Jan 11…..2,164......1,952.........212.....11%
State Street.......................Dec…...2,086......2,525.......(439).(17)%
Covidien plc......................Sep…...1,926......1,807........119.......7%
MassMutual Life Ins(1)......Dec…...1,854......1,794.........60.......3%
Biogen IDEC(2)..................Dec…...1,475......1,333........142.....11%
Staples............................Jan 11….1,357......1,156.........201....17%
Thermo Fisher Scientific...Dec…...1,165.........927.........238....26%
Analog Devices.................Oct….....902.........297.........605...204%
Boston Scientific(3)..........Dec….....754.....(1,308).....2,062...158%
Northeast Utilities............Dec….....605.........516...........89....17%
American Tower...............Dec….....556.........421.........135....32%
Waters..............................Dec….....438.........387..........51.....13%
Nstar Electric...................Dec….....411..........392..........19.......5%
Iron Mountain(4).............Dec….....385.........333..........52....16%
Eaton Vance.....................Oct….....327.........208.........119....57%
Genzyme(5)......................Dec….....285.........544.......(259)..(48)%
Akamai Technologies........Dec…....262.........237..........25.....11%
Hanover Insurance Grp....Dec….....211.........271.........(60)...(22)%
Cabot Corp.......................Sep….....208........(102).......310...304%
BJs Wholesale Club.........Jan 11…...207........227.........(20)....(9)%
OneBeacon Insur Grp.......Dec….....129.........457.......(328)...(72)%

Total of 24 MA Big Corps..........25,062....19,889.......5,173....26%

(1) Liberty Mutual and MassMutual are both mutual companies, and the PTI numbers are "Net Gains from Operations Before Dividends and Federal Income Taxes".
(2) Biogen IDEC 2010 PTI excludes In Process R&D Charge.
(3) Boston Scientific 2010 PTI excludes huge Goodwill Impairment Charge.
(4) Iron Mountain 2010 PTI excludes Goodwill Impairment Charge.
(5) Genzyme 2010 PTI excludes both Consent Decree Charge and Contingent Consideration Expense.

Yeah, Massachusetts 24 Big Corps registered a very strong 26% increase in Total Pretax Income in 2010. But that's not the main story from studying these companies.

The main story here is of the incredible high quality of these 24 Massachusetts Big Corps. Just check out the Total Annual Pretax Earnings of these 24 companies both before the Great Recession, during the Great Recession, and as the country starts to come out of the Great Recession.

.........Total Pretax Income...% Change from Preceding Year

2006......$18,691 mil
2007.....$19,094 mil...........................+2%
2008.....$20,763 mil...........................+9%
2009.....$19,889 mil............................(4)%
2010.....$25,062 mil.........................+26%

These above numbers show that because of the extremely high quality of the 24 Massachusetts' Big Corps, that the Great Recession pretty much skipped them by. And in the most recent year 2010, Total Pretax Income of these 24 Big Corps of $25.1 bil was much higher than it was before the Great Recession....up 31% from 2007 and up 34% from 2006.

Here's the 5 year layout of the Annual Pretax Income of each of these 24 Massachusetts' Big Corps in the most recent 5 years:


..........................................PTI....PTI(L)....PTI(L)....PTI(L)....PTI
.........................................2010...2009.....2008.....2007....2006
.......................................(all amounts are in millions of dollars)

EMC.................................2,608...1,375....1,600....1,963....1,390
Raytheon.........................2,432...2,930....2,522....2,251....1,791
Liberty Mutual Group......2,315....1,210....1,253....2,172....2,258
TJX..................................2,164....1,952....1,451....1,260....1,264
State Street......................2,086...2,525....2,842....1,903....1,771
Covidien plc.....................1,926...1,807....2,035.......351....1,900
MassMutual Life Ins.........1,854...1,794.....1,311....2,173....1,745
Biogen IDEC(1).................1,475...1,333.....1,156......852.......823
Staples.............................1,357....1,156....1,243....1,555....1,471
Thermo Fisher Scientific..1,165......927.....1,128.......861......209
Analog Devices...................902.....297.......666........661......637
Boston Scientific(2).............754.(1,308).....768......(569).....584
Northeast Utilities...............605.....516.......372.......361........62
American Tower..................556.....421.......372.......153........71
Waters................................438.....387.......372.......323......263
Nstar Electric......................411.....392.......366.......352......325
Iron Mountain....................385.....333.......225.......223......225
Eaton Vance.......................327.....208.......323.......238......263
Genzyme(3)........................285.....544.......626.......736......719
Akamai Technologies..........262.....237.......235.......168........98
Hanover Insurance Grp.......211.....271.......164........342......271
Cabot Corp..........................208....(102)......112.......168........97
BJs Wholesale Club.............207.....227.......222.......195.......150
OneBeacon Insur Grp..........129.....457......(601)......402......304

Total 24 MA Big Corps...25,062..19,889..20,763..19,094..18,691

Annual PTI % Change........26%......(4)%.......9%.........2%

(1) Biogen IDEC 2006 PTI excludes In Process R&D Charge.
(2) Boston Scientific 2008 PTI excludes Goodwill Impairment Charge and 2006 PTI excludes huge In Process R&D Charge.
(3) Genzyme 2006 PTI excludes both In Process R&D Charge and Intangible Asset Impairment Charge.

Massachusetts is doing some things that are really working economically. I think the US Government and other US States could learn from studying why the Massachusetts economy was able to avoid, for the most part, the Great Recession.

The above research, where I found 24 Massachusetts Big Corps, was performed through the end of March 2011. Since then, in April and May 2011, I extended this research, and I found 7 additional Massachusetts Big Corps, which are shown here below.

..........................................2010.......2009.........Increase
...........................................Core........Core........(Decrease)
.......State..........................PTI(L)......PTI(L).....Amount.....%
..............................................(millions of dollars)....
Late Big Corp Additions

Massachusetts (7)
Teradyne............................395...........(142)..........537...378%
Affiliated Managers.............379............246...........133.....54%
Boston Properties(1)...........280............274.............6........2%
Varian Semiconducter(2)....248................5...........243.....NM
Skyworks Solutions(3).........231..............86...........145....169%
Sun Life Assurance (US)......205..........1,212......(1,007)..(83)%
Interactive Data Corp(4).......35.............210.........(175)..(83)%

(1) Boston Properties in an REIT. Also, its 2010 PTI excludes a Loss on Debt Extinguishment.
(2) Varian Semiconductor earnings numbers in both years are the for 12 months ended December.
(3) Skyworks Solutions earnings numbers in both years are for the 12 months ended December.
(4) Interactive Data Corp 2010 PTI excludes Merger Costs.