These 82 Largest Illinois Corps generated Total Pretax Income in 2011 which more than doubled, or up an off-the-charts 105% from such amount two years earlier in 2009.
Now I wanted to see if these incredibly strong earnings also applied to the even smaller Illinois Corps, which file with the SEC.
I found 30 Illinois headquartered Smaller Corps filing with the SEC, which had Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of $40 mil or more in any of the most recent three years, and which weren't included in the 82 Largest Illinois Corps. Thus, these 30 Smaller Illinois Corps also did not have Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of $100 mil or more in any of the most recent three years.
How did they do? Well, these 30 Smaller Illinois Corps generated total earnings growth in the most recent two years of an even substantially more off-the-charts 2,017%, or 19 times the 105% total earnings growth of the 82 Largest Illinois Corps.
Clearly, Illinois citizens should be very proud of their many superb Illinois companies, of all sizes.
I know a little bit about Illinois, going to grad school there, and living in the Chicago area and working for many years for someone who ended up being the CEO of the first company listed in the below list of the 82 Largest Illinois Corps. He could just glance at a very lengthy, complicated spreadsheet and get to its core, or its lack thereof, almost instantaneously. And he had that very rare "vision" thing. He built out the company's key foreign infrastructure, which more than anything, has made this company so successful today. I doubt that there is a more effective CEO presently in the US.
But I had no idea that the Corporations of all sizes in Illinois, and particularly in the Chicago area, had their earnings in the most recent two years just explode upwardly like you see in the below charts.....the largest ones being up more than 100%, and the smaller ones being up more than 2,000%.
And so many people in the country, and in Illinois, still contend that the Obama Administration has been horrible for all US businesses. Give me a break!
Yeah, the Obama Administration created a very robust US economic environment, which permitted these fine Illinois companies of all sizes to do just fantastically on the earnings front in the most recent two years.
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, and Gains and Losses on both Debt Retirements and Asset Dispositions.
I use Pretax Income rather than After-tax Net Income, since so much of the change in effective income tax rates just happens due to financial engineering.
I excluded Corps in the Development Stage.
Let me first show each of the 82 Largest and 30 Smaller Illinois Corps, and where they are Headquartered.
| Illinois Corporation | Illinois HQs |
| Largest Corps | |
| AAR | Wood Dale |
| Abbott Labs | Abbott Park |
| Accenture | Chicago |
| Allscripts HC Solutions | Chicago |
| Allstate | Northbrook |
| Anixter | Glenview |
| Aon | Chicago |
| Aptargroup | Crystal Lake |
| Archer Daniels Midland | Decatur |
| Arthur Gallagher | Itasca |
| Baxter | Deerfield |
| Beam | Deerfield |
| Brunswick | Lake Forest |
| Calamos Asset Mgt | Naperville |
| Career Education | Schaumburg |
| Caterpillar | Peoria |
| CBOE Holdings | Chicago |
| CDW Corp | Vernon Hills |
| CF Industries | Deerfield |
| CME Group | Chicago |
| CNA Financial | Chicago |
| CNH Global NV | Burr Ridge |
| Corn Products Intl | Westchester |
| Deere | Moline |
| DeVry | Downers Grove |
| Discover Financial Services | Riverwoods |
| Dover | Downers Grove |
| First Busey | Urbana |
| GATX | Chicago |
| General Growth Properties | Chicago |
| Gogo | Itasca |
| Groupon | Chicago |
| Horace Mann Education | Springfield |
| Hospira | Lake Forest |
| HSBC Finance US | Mettawa |
| IDEX | Lake Forest |
| Illinois Tool Works | Glenview |
| Jones Lang Lasalle | Chicago |
| Kapstone Paper & Packaging | Northbrook |
| Kemper | Chicago |
| Kraft Foods | Northfield |
| Littelfuse | Chicago |
| LKQ Corp | Chicago |
| MB Financial | Chicago |
| McDonalds | Oak Brook |
| Middleby | Elgin |
| Molex | Lisle |
| Morningstar | Chicago |
| Motorola Mobility | Libertyville |
| Motorola Solutions | Schaumburg |
| Navistar | Warrenville |
| Northern Trust | Chicago |
| OfficeMax | Naperville |
| Old Republic | Chicago |
| Packaging Corp America | Lake Forest |
| RLI Corp | Peoria |
| RR Donnelley | Chicago |
| Ryerson | Chicago |
| Sara Lee | Downers Grove |
| Sears Holding | Hoffman Estates |
| Stepan | Northfield |
| Stericycle | Lake Forest |
| Strategic Hotels | Chicago |
| SunCoke Energy | Lisle |
| SXC Health Solutions | Lisle |
| Telephone & Data Systems | Chicago |
| Tellabs | Naperville |
| Tenneco | Lake Forest |
| Terra Nitrogen LP | Deerfield |
| Titan Intl | Quincy |
| Transunion | Chicago |
| Treehouse Foods | Westchester |
| Ulta Salon | Bolingbrook |
| United Continental | Chicago |
| United Stationers | Deerfield |
| US Cellular | Chicago |
| USG | Chicago |
| Ventas | Chicago |
| Walgreens | Deerfield |
| WMS Industries | Waukegan |
| WW Grainger | Lake Forest |
| Zebra Technologies | Lincolnshire |
| Smaller Corps | |
| Acco Brands | Lincolnshire |
| Accretive Health | Chicago |
| Akorn | Lake Forest |
| AM Castle | Oak Brook |
| Amcol International | Hoffman Estates |
| Cabot Microelectronics | Aurora |
| Consolidated Communications | Mattoon |
| Enova | Chicago |
| Equity Lifestyle Properties | Chicago |
| Equity Residential | Chicago |
| First Industrial Realty Trust | Chicago |
| First Midwest Bancorp | Itasca |
| Fortune Brands Home & Security | Deerfield |
| Great Lakes Dredge & Dock | Oak Brook |
| HUB Group | Lombard |
| Huron Consulting Group | Chicago |
| Hyatt Hotels | Chicago |
| Inland American Real Estate Trust | Oak Brook |
| John Bean Technologies | Chicago |
| Navigant Consulting | Chicago |
| Neutral Tandem | Chicago |
| Old Second Bancorp | Aurora |
| Princeton National Bancorp | Princeton |
| PrivateBancorp | Chicago |
| Retail Properties of America | Oak Brook |
| Rubicon Technology | Franklin Park |
| Schawk | Des Plaines |
| Taylor Capital Group | Wheeling |
| Tootsie Roll Industries | Chicago |
| Wintrust Financial | Lake Forest |
And below here is the Pretax Income (PTI) or Pretax Loss of each of these 82 Largest and 30 Smaller Illinois Corporations for each of the most recent three years, along with the related percentage changes in earnings.
| Obama | ||||||
| US House | US House | Bump | ||||
| Republican | Democratic | Two | ||||
| Control | Control | Year | ||||
| PTI(L) | PTI(L) | PTI(L) | ||||
| % | % | % | ||||
| Change | Change | Change | ||||
| 2011 | 2010 | 2011 | ||||
| PTI(L) | PTI(L) | PTI(L) | vs | vs | vs | |
| 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2010 | 2009 | 2009 | |
| mils $s | mils $s | mils $s | ||||
| Illinois Largest Corps | ||||||
| McDonalds | 8,012 | 7,000 | 6,487 | 14% | 8% | 24% |
| Abbott Labs | 7,372 | 6,026 | 6,280 | 22% | -4% | 17% |
| Caterpillar | 6,725 | 3,750 | 569 | 79% | 559% | 1082% |
| Kraft Foods | 4,772 | 3,642 | 3,946 | 31% | -8% | 21% |
| Deere | 4,223 | 3,025 | 1,339 | 40% | 126% | 215% |
| Walgreens | 3,860 | 3,373 | 3,164 | 14% | 7% | 22% |
| Accenture | 3,512 | 2,914 | 2,678 | 21% | 9% | 31% |
| Discover Financial Services | 3,511 | 1,269 | 229 | 177% | 454% | 1433% |
| Archer Daniels Midland | 3,015 | 2,585 | 2,500 | 17% | 3% | 21% |
| Baxter | 2,809 | 2,590 | 2,734 | 8% | -5% | 3% |
| CF Industries | 2,646 | 688 | 696 | 285% | -1% | 280% |
| Illinois Tool Works | 2,593 | 2,089 | 1,320 | 24% | 58% | 96% |
| CME Group | 1,937 | 1,722 | 1,438 | 12% | 20% | 35% |
| Aon | 1,384 | 1,059 | 949 | 31% | 12% | 46% |
| CNH Global NV | 1,151 | 416 | (93) | 177% | 547% | 1338% |
| Dover | 1,095 | 899 | 494 | 22% | 82% | 122% |
| WW Grainger | 1,052 | 854 | 660 | 23% | 29% | 59% |
| Allstate | 960 | 1,126 | 1,248 | -15% | -10% | -23% |
| Northern Trust | 884 | 990 | 1,255 | -11% | -21% | -30% |
| CNA Financial | 877 | 1,112 | 540 | -21% | 106% | 62% |
| United Continental | 845 | 354 | (321) | 139% | 210% | 363% |
| Motorola Solutions | 738 | 664 | 633 | 11% | 5% | 17% |
| Corn Products Intl | 593 | 275 | 115 | 116% | 139% | 416% |
| Sara Lee | 542 | 573 | 462 | -5% | 24% | 17% |
| Terra Nitrogen LP | 508 | 202 | 144 | 151% | 40% | 253% |
| DeVry | 494 | 413 | 237 | 20% | 74% | 108% |
| Beam | 433 | 346 | 341 | 25% | 1% | 27% |
| Molex | 430 | 168 | (21) | 156% | 900% | 2148% |
| Hospira | 373 | 379 | 384 | -2% | -1% | -3% |
| Stericycle | 372 | 332 | 278 | 12% | 19% | 34% |
| Telephone & Data Systems | 364 | 286 | 385 | 27% | -26% | -5% |
| LKQ Corp | 336 | 270 | 205 | 24% | 32% | 64% |
| RR Donnelley | 326 | 416 | 260 | -22% | 60% | 25% |
| Navistar | 320 | 290 | 359 | 10% | -19% | -11% |
| US Cellular | 313 | 241 | 349 | 30% | -31% | -10% |
| Ventas | 310 | 254 | 211 | 22% | 20% | 47% |
| Anixter | 304 | 212 | 98 | 43% | 116% | 210% |
| Aptargroup | 275 | 254 | 184 | 8% | 38% | 49% |
| IDEX | 274 | 232 | 169 | 18% | 37% | 62% |
| Tenneco | 271 | 132 | (41) | 105% | 422% | 761% |
| Packaging Corp America | 244 | 239 | 149 | 2% | 60% | 64% |
| CBOE Holdings | 240 | 165 | 177 | 45% | -7% | 36% |
| Career Education | 234 | 313 | 226 | -25% | 38% | 4% |
| Jones Lang Lasalle | 222 | 203 | 3 | 9% | 6667% | 7300% |
| Arthur Gallagher | 208 | 203 | 211 | 2% | -4% | -1% |
| Ulta Salon | 196 | 118 | 66 | 66% | 79% | 197% |
| RLI Corp | 190 | 178 | 132 | 7% | 35% | 44% |
| Zebra Technologies | 180 | 150 | 72 | 20% | 108% | 150% |
| United Stationers | 173 | 183 | 160 | -5% | 14% | 8% |
| Calamos Asset Mgt | 156 | 148 | 93 | 5% | 59% | 68% |
| GATX | 148 | 97 | 108 | 53% | -10% | 37% |
| CDW Corp | 147 | (37) | (219) | 497% | 83% | 167% |
| Morningstar | 140 | 128 | 128 | 9% | 0% | 9% |
| Treehouse Foods | 140 | 136 | 122 | 3% | 11% | 15% |
| Middleby | 140 | 114 | 100 | 23% | 14% | 40% |
| SXC Health Solutions | 138 | 98 | 68 | 41% | 44% | 103% |
| Transunion | 126 | 139 | 206 | -9% | -33% | -39% |
| WMS Industries | 124 | 171 | 140 | -27% | 22% | -11% |
| Allscripts HC Solutions | 117 | 104 | 44 | 13% | 136% | 166% |
| Littelfuse | 115 | 108 | 11 | 6% | 882% | 945% |
| Titan Intl | 112 | 6 | (20) | 1767% | 130% | 660% |
| AAR | 109 | 68 | 90 | 60% | -24% | 21% |
| Brunswick | 109 | (85) | (685) | 228% | 88% | 116% |
| Stepan | 105 | 101 | 97 | 4% | 4% | 8% |
| Kapstone Paper & Packaging | 100 | 41 | (62) | 144% | 166% | 261% |
| Horace Mann Education | 95 | 111 | 104 | -14% | 7% | -9% |
| Kemper | 83 | 237 | 228 | -65% | 4% | -64% |
| SunCoke Energy | 66 | 193 | 232 | -66% | -17% | -72% |
| Office Max | 58 | 116 | (30) | -50% | 487% | 293% |
| First Busey | 45 | 33 | (191) | 36% | 117% | 124% |
| MB Financial | 44 | (42) | (107) | 205% | 61% | 141% |
| Ryerson | 32 | (57) | (107) | 156% | 47% | 130% |
| Gogo | (34) | (77) | (142) | 56% | 46% | 76% |
| Strategic Hotels | (76) | (104) | (136) | 27% | 24% | 44% |
| Tellabs | (92) | 192 | 113 | -148% | 70% | -181% |
| Motorola Mobility | (148) | (287) | (1,335) | 48% | 79% | 89% |
| Old Republic | (237) | 28 | (274) | -946% | 110% | 14% |
| Groupon | (254) | (217) | (1) | -6% | -21600% | -25300% |
| General Growth Properties | (299) | (403) | (279) | 26% | -44% | -7% |
| USG | (347) | (381) | (370) | 9% | -3% | 6% |
| Sears Holding | (1,102) | 166 | 391 | -764% | -58% | -382% |
| HSBC Finance US | (3,734) | (3,903) | (8,784) | 4% | 56% | 57% |
| Total all 82 Largest Corps | 68,824 | 52,116 | 33,593 | 32% | 55% | 105% |
| Illinois Smaller Corps | ||||||
| HUB Group | 94 | 70 | 56 | 34% | 25% | 68% |
| Wintrust Financial | 90 | 57 | (38) | 58% | 250% | 337% |
| Hyatt Hotels | 83 | 88 | (51) | -6% | 273% | 263% |
| Equity Residential | 81 | (64) | (52) | 227% | -23% | 256% |
| Cabot Microelectronics | 79 | 73 | 17 | 8% | 329% | 365% |
| Amcol International | 76 | 61 | 40 | 25% | 53% | 90% |
| Navigant Consulting | 71 | 48 | 38 | 48% | 26% | 87% |
| PrivateBancorp | 70 | 0 | (50) | NA | 100% | 240% |
| Huron Consulting Group | 65 | 38 | 37 | 71% | 3% | 76% |
| Tootsie Roll Industries | 61 | 73 | 77 | -16% | -5% | -21% |
| Equity Lifestyle Properties | 59 | 59 | 48 | 0% | 23% | 23% |
| Enova | 58 | 39 | 28 | 49% | 39% | 107% |
| Rubicon Technology | 55 | 29 | (10) | 90% | 390% | 650% |
| Accretive Health | 48 | 22 | 18 | 118% | 22% | 167% |
| John Bean Technologies | 47 | 59 | 49 | -20% | 20% | -4% |
| Fortune Brands Home & Security | 46 | 83 | (30) | -45% | 377% | 253% |
| Neutral Tandem | 46 | 55 | 65 | -16% | -15% | -29% |
| Consolidated Communications | 44 | 42 | 38 | 5% | 11% | 16% |
| Acco Brands | 43 | 39 | 9 | 10% | 333% | 378% |
| Akorn | 41 | 31 | (15) | 32% | 307% | 373% |
| First Midwest Bancorp | 41 | (38) | (76) | 208% | 50% | 154% |
| Schawk | 22 | 42 | 27 | -48% | 56% | -19% |
| Great Lakes Dredge & Dock | 20 | 54 | 26 | -63% | 108% | -23% |
| Taylor Capital Group | 18 | (53) | (31) | 134% | -71% | 158% |
| Old Second Bancorp | (6) | (67) | (53) | 91% | -26% | 89% |
| AM Castle | (9) | (14) | (44) | 36% | 68% | 80% |
| First Industrial Realty Trust | (37) | (48) | (68) | 23% | 29% | 46% |
| Inland American Real Estate Trust | (42) | (72) | (46) | 42% | -57% | 9% |
| Princeton National Bancorp | (46) | (29) | 2 | -59% | -1550% | -2400% |
| Retail Properties of America | (68) | (89) | (71) | 24% | -25% | 4% |
| Total all 30 Smaller Corps | 1,150 | 588 | (60) | 96% | 1080% | 2017% |
