Nebraska Corporate 2011 Annual Earnings Up Sharply Under Obama

I found 10 Corporations, headquartered in Nebraska, which file with the SEC, and which had Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of more than $100 mil in any of the most recent three fiscal years.

These 10 Nebraska Corps, generated Total Pretax Earnings in 2011 of $25.0 bil, up 3% over 2010, and spiking up to a 50% increase over 2009.

In deriving Pretax Income, I start with Pretax Income under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and then exclude several clearly unusual very large items relative to Pretax Income, such as Asset Impairments, Gains and Losses on both Debt Retirements and Asset Dispositions, and Special Litigation Charges and Gains.  I am also excluding from Pretax Income Berkshire Hathaways’ Derivative Gains and Losses and Investment Gains and Losses.

The extremely well run Berkshire Hathaway dominates the corporate landscape in Nebraska.  Its Pretax Earnings in 2011 comprised a huge 64% of all 10 of these Nebraska Corps.  Berkshire Hathaways’ Pretax Income increase in the most recent two years of 50% precisely matched that of the other 9 Nebraska Corps in total.

Nebraska citizens should be extremely proud of the operating performance in the most recent two years of their superb Nebraska Corporations. 

Clearly, the Obama Administration has created an economic environment that has permitted these Nebraska Corporations to flat-out flourish. 

Nebraska is very fortunate to have Bob Kerrey running for one of its US Senator spots.  Being a very successful businessman himself, Kerrey has always been a strong advocate for businesses of all sizes.  And in his sparkling career as a Nebraska US Senator, he was a fierce, very effective fighter for Nebraska businesses.

Below here is the Pretax Income (PTI) and Pretax Loss (PTL) of these 10 Nebraska Corps for each of the most recent three years, with the most recent fiscal year ends ranging from May 2011 to January 2012.

					Obama
					Bump
				PTI(L)	PTI(L)
				1 Year	2 Year
	PTI(L)	PTI(L)	PTI(L)	%	%
	2011	2010	2009	Change	Change
	mils $s	mils $s	mils $s
Nebraska
Berkshire Hathaway	16,144	16,705	10,765	-3%	50%
Union Pacific	5,264	4,433	2,974	19%	77%
ConAgra Foods	1,225	1,081	908	13%	35%
TD Ameritrade	1,016	912	1,059	11%	-4%
NelNet	322	302	216	7%	49%
Buckle	240	215	204	12%	18%
Valmont Industries	234	153	226	53%	4%
Cabelas	214	167	77	28%	178%
West Corp	205	174	148	18%	39%
Werner Enterprises	175	136	99	29%	77%
Total all 10	25,039	24,278	16,676	3%	50%