I found 7 Big Corps based in the State of Nebraska. I am defining these Big Corps as ones that had more than $200 mil in Core Pretax Earnings or Losses in either of the most recent two years: 2010 and 2009.
Anyway, one Giant Corp dominates the Nebraska-based Big Corp earnings landscape. Berkshire Hathaway, led by visionary Warren Buffett, posted Pretax Earnings in 2010 of an incredible $19.1 bil, which was an increase of a massive 65% over 2009.
For Berkshire Hathaway to increase its earnings by 65% over such a huge prior year earnings base is just an amazing accomplishment. It is pretty clear that Warren Buffett just sees things others don't see, and certainly much earlier than others.
Union Pacific is the second largest profit earner in Nebraska. It generated Pretax Earnings of $4.4 bil in 2010, an increase of a very robust 49% over 2009.
Below here are the individual current earnings for these Nebraska 7 largest publicly-held Corps, 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.
Nebraska 7 Largest Publicly-Held Corps Most Recent Annual Pretax Earnings (PTI)
..........................................................................Increase
.................................FYE.........PTI.........PTI....(Decrease)....
NE Big Corp.............2010......2010.......2009......Amount....%.
................................................(millions of dollars)....
Berkshire Hathaway..Dec…...19,051....11,552.....7,499....65%
Union Pacific............Dec….....4,433......2,974......1,459....49%
ConAgra Foods.........May…....1,085.........912.........173....19%
TD Ameritrade..........Sep….......912.......1,059.......(147)..(14)%
Nelnet(1)..................Dec….......357.........216..........141....65%
Mutual of Omaha(2)..Dec….......317.........235...........82....35%
Valmont Industries...Dec…......153..........226.........(73)..(32)%
Total 7 NE Big Corps...........26,308.....17,174......9,134....53%
(1) Nelnet 2010 PTI excludes Litigation Settlement Charge.
(2) Mutual of Omaha is a Mutual Company. The earnings numbers here are its Pretax Operating Earnings.
I think that just like New Jersey-based Honeywell and Connecticut-based GE, both Union Pacific and parts of Berkshire Hathaway are also both well positioned to be key players in helping the country get more intensely focused on what should be its critical energy independence path.
The above research, where I found 7 Nebraska Big Corps, was performed through the end of March 2011. Since then, in April and May 2011, I extended this research, and I found 1 additional Nebraska Big Corp, which is shown here below.
..........................................2010.......2009.........Increase
...........................................Core........Core........(Decrease)
.......State..........................PTI(L)......PTI(L).....Amount.....%
..............................................(millions of dollars)....
Late Big Corp Addition
Buckle..................NE........215...........204............11.........5%
