These 33 Largest North Carolina Corps had Total Pretax Income of $34.1 bil in the most recent fiscal year 2011, which was an off-the-charts 106% increase over the $16.6 bil earned just two years earlier in 2009.
And I also found 42 additional Corps headquartered in North Carolina filing with the SEC with Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of at least $10 mil in any of the most recent three fiscal years, but with none of the three years having Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of more than $100 mil.
These 42 Smaller North Carolina Corps had their Total Pretax Income in the most recent fiscal year 2011 increase by an even more off-the-charts 148% from such amount two years earlier in 2009.
Thus, when you combine the Largest and Smaller North Carolina Corps, you get a total of 75 Largest North Carolina Corps filing with the SEC and which had their Total Pretax Income in the most recent fiscal year 2011 increase by an off-the-charts 106% over such amount two years earlier in 2009.
North Carolina citizens have to be very proud of their fine North Carolina companies, of all sizes.
And North Carolina citizens also have to be very happy with how the Obama Administration has created such a robust US economic environment which has fostered their companies' exceptional earnings growth in the most recent two years.
Corporate earnings drive stock prices. These exceptional US corporate profits, generated during the Obama Administration, were the reason the US stock market has doubled in the past three and a half years.
In Texas and Oklahoma, Oil & Gas Corps rule. In California, High Technology Corps rule. And in North Carolina, the Financial Industry clearly rules. More than half, or 55%, of the Total Pretax Income in 2011 of the 33 Largest North Carolina Corps was generated by Financial Corps. And Financial Corps comprised 16 of the 42 Smaller North Carolina Corps.
The financial industry did cause the horrible financial meltdown, which still plays havoc on US economic growth and on US job creation. But I think the smaller financial industry has gotten a bum rap here. There were problems with some of their actions, but they were clearly bit players in the financial industry meltdown. The blame clearly lies with the Big Financial Corps
I think there should be some wisely-designed tax and other incentives to make the smaller banks more competitive, and also more willing to lend to small and medium-sized businesses.
On the downside, the strong earnings of these Largest North Carolina Corps has completely stopped to a walk in the first half of 2012. There is no way robust US job creation can occur when US Corporate Earnings are flat.
So, how does the country get out of this horrible economic pickle?
I think the only way the US economy will be great again is for a combination of a Moderate Democratic President and a US House under control by Moderate Democrats, who are willing to work across the aisle. And a US Senate under control by Moderate Democrats, who also are willing to work across the aisle, would also help.
In such a political environment, I think you will see wise, effective legislation quickly passed which will spur US job creation. I also think that the key ingredient here has to be very lucrative business tax incentives that can be earned only if the business sufficiently increases its number of US full-time employees, which have to be retained for a reasonable number of years, or else these tax benefits are recaptured. That's legislation which benefits everyone.....businesses, the workers, and the want-to-be workers. Then the country will be back to 2010 again, when US business earnings were on fire! The only difference is that there will also be a quick, substantial cut in the US unemployment rate and in the US underemployment rate.
With Obama as President and the Uncompromising, Block-Voting, Very Conservative Republicans, unwilling to work across the aisle, remaining in control of the US House, there will be continued gridlock, and I think you'll see the US unemployment rate remaining above 8%, and probably averaging in the 8.5% to 9.0% range, through 2016.
And if Mitt Romney is elected President, and if both the US House and US Senate are also in Republican hands, I think you will see the US unemployment rate continually creep up, and average in the low double-digit percentages for the last three years of Romney's presidential term.
Why? Because the key components of Romney's economic plan.....(1) substantial, no-job-creation-strings-attached income tax rate cuts for both very wealthy individuals and for large corporations, (2) tax-free foreign earnings repatriation, and (3) a worldwide territorial tax system.....in the aggregate, do create many jobs overseas, but do not create any jobs, in the aggregate, in the US. And when you combine that with the more than 130,000 new people added to the available US workforce each month, you mathematically get a low double-digit percentage US unemployment rate starting in the first half of 2014.
And when you have continuing low double-digit percentage US unemployment rates, the annual US deficits will explode upwardly, and will be substantially higher than the present staggering annual US deficits.
In deriving Ongoing, Core 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. For Bank of America, in addition to excluding Goodwill Impairment Charges, I also excluded the huge $14.0 bil Mortgage Representations and Warranties Provision Hit to Earnings recorded in the 2Q 2011.
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. I also excluded Corps with not significant enough Total Revenues.
Below here is the Ongoing, Core Pretax Income (PTI) and Pretax Loss (PTL) of these 33 Largest and 42 Smaller North Carolina Corps for each of the most recent three years, along with the related percentage changes.
| Obama | |||||||
| Bump | |||||||
| Two | |||||||
| Year | |||||||
| PTI(L) | PTI(L) | PTI(L) | |||||
| % | % | % | |||||
| Change | Change | Change | |||||
| PTI(L) | PTI(L) | PTI(L) | 2011 | 2010 | 2011 | ||
| North Carolina | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | vs | vs | vs | |
| HQs | mils $s | mils $s | mils $s | 2010 | 2009 | 2009 | |
| North Carolina Largest Corps | |||||||
| Bank of America | Charlotte | 16,954 | 11,077 | 4,360 | 53% | 154% | 289% |
| Lowes | Mooresville | 3,294 | 3,299 | 2,939 | 0% | 12% | 12% |
| Reynolds American | Winston-Salem | 2,534 | 2,315 | 2,089 | 9% | 11% | 21% |
| Lorillard | Greensboro | 1,770 | 1,635 | 1,519 | 8% | 8% | 17% |
| BB&T | Winston-Salem | 1,628 | 969 | 1,036 | 68% | -6% | 57% |
| Nucor | Charlotte | 1,252 | 267 | 414 | 369% | -36% | 202% |
| VF Corp | Greensboro | 1,198 | 952 | 777 | 26% | 23% | 54% |
| Goodrich | Charlotte | 1,165 | 840 | 784 | 39% | 7% | 49% |
| Laboratory Corp America | Burlington | 866 | 916 | 885 | -5% | 4% | -2% |
| Family Dollar Stores | Charlotte | 617 | 564 | 451 | 9% | 25% | 37% |
| Hanesbrands | Winston-Salem | 319 | 251 | 107 | 27% | 135% | 198% |
| Hatteras Financial | Winston-Salem | 284 | 170 | 174 | 67% | -2% | 63% |
| Carlisle | Charlotte | 254 | 188 | 176 | 35% | 7% | 44% |
| Belk | Charlotte | 250 | 196 | 97 | 28% | 102% | 158% |
| SPX | Charlotte | 248 | 272 | 291 | -9% | -7% | -15% |
| Babcock & Wilcox | Charlotte | 235 | 236 | 232 | 0% | 2% | 1% |
| Old Dominion Freight | Thomasville | 220 | 124 | 57 | 77% | 118% | 286% |
| Red Hat | Raleigh | 208 | 154 | 122 | 35% | 26% | 70% |
| Harris Teeter Supermarkets | Matthews | 162 | 158 | 152 | 3% | 4% | 7% |
| First Citizens Bancshares | Raleigh | 160 | 168 | 79 | -5% | 113% | 103% |
| Polypore International | Charlotte | 157 | 89 | 17 | 76% | 424% | 824% |
| Dex One | Cary | 157 | 289 | 51 | 146% | 467% | 208% |
| Sonic Automotive | Charlotte | 126 | 78 | 51 | 62% | 53% | 147% |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals | Raleigh | 113 | 11 | (46) | 927% | 124% | 346% |
| Martin Marietta Materials | Raleigh | 101 | 130 | 111 | -22% | 17% | -9% |
| CATO | Charlotte | 100 | 93 | 67 | 8% | 39% | 49% |
| Speedway Motorsports | Concord | 74 | 71 | 109 | 4% | -35% | -32% |
| Cree | Durham | 48 | 178 | 205 | -73% | -13% | -77% |
| Alliance One International | Morrisville | 40 | 0 | 133 | NM | -100% | -70% |
| RF Micro Devices | Greensboro | 16 | 124 | 85 | -87% | 46% | -81% |
| Triad Guaranty | Winston-Salem | (108) | 102 | (612) | -206% | 117% | 82% |
| FNB United | Asheboro | (127) | (125) | (47) | -2% | -174% | -179% |
| Fairpoint Communications | Charlotte | (237) | (248) | (292) | 4% | 7% | 11% |
| Total all 33 Largest Corps | 34,078 | 25,543 | 16,573 | 33% | 54% | 106% | |
| North Carolina Smaller Corps | |||||||
| Fresh Market | Greensboro | 81 | 68 | 50 | 19% | 36% | 62% |
| EnPro Industries | Charlotte | 62 | 52 | 32 | 19% | 63% | 94% |
| Snyders-Lance | Charlotte | 60 | 46 | 53 | 30% | -13% | 13% |
| Coca Cola Bottling | Charlotte | 59 | 66 | 43 | -11% | 53% | 37% |
| Ingles Markets | Asheville | 58 | 49 | 55 | 18% | -11% | 5% |
| Tanger Factory Outlet Centers | Greensboro | 51 | 46 | 31 | 11% | 48% | 65% |
| Pozen | Chapel Hill | 42 | 23 | (7) | 83% | 429% | 700% |
| Highwoods Properties | Raleigh | 39 | 42 | 41 | -7% | 2% | -5% |
| Dynacast Intl | Charlotte | 33 | 58 | 23 | -43% | 152% | 43% |
| Pantry | Cary | 27 | 41 | 83 | -34% | -51% | -67% |
| Krispy Kreme Doughnuts | Winston Salem | 25 | 14 | 6 | 79% | 133% | 317% |
| Xerium Technologies | Raleigh | 22 | 2 | (15) | 1000% | 121% | 257% |
| Unifi | Greensboro | 16 | 35 | 18 | -54% | 172% | 240% |
| Culp | High Point | 14 | 15 | 14 | -7% | 7% | 0% |
| First Bancorp | Troy | 11 | 15 | 30 | -27% | -50% | -63% |
| Capital Bank | Raleigh | 10 | (46) | (14) | 113% | -229% | 143% |
| Insteel Industries | Mount Airy | 8 | (1) | (33) | 900% | 97% | 124% |
| Newbridge Bancorp | Lexington | 6 | 3 | (27) | 100% | 111% | 122% |
| Campus Crest Communities | Charlotte | 4 | (22) | (17) | 118% | -29% | 124% |
| HomeTrust Bancshares | Asheville | 4 | (34) | (28) | 112% | -21% | 114% |
| Pike Electric | Mount Airy | 4 | (13) | 52 | 121% | -125% | -92% |
| Southern Community Financial | Winston Salem | 3 | (19) | (20) | 116% | 5% | 115% |
| ASB Bancorp | Asheville | 2 | (16) | 2 | 113% | -900% | 0% |
| First South Bancorp | Washington | 2 | (4) | 11 | 150% | -136% | -82% |
| Cornerstone Therapeutics | Cary | 1 | 8 | 16 | -88% | -50% | -94% |
| BNC Bancorp | High Point | (3) | (12) | 6 | 75% | -300% | -150% |
| Yadkin Valley Financial | Elkin | (3) | (1) | (22) | -200% | 95% | 86% |
| American Defense Systems | Lillington | (3) | (7) | (12) | 43% | 42% | 67% |
| Lime Energy | Huntersville | (6) | (5) | (15) | -20% | 67% | 60% |
| Targacept | Winston Salem | (9) | 14 | (39) | -164% | 136% | 77% |
| Four Oaks Fincorp | Four Oaks | (9) | (22) | (5) | 59% | -340% | -80% |
| 1st Financial Services | Hendersonville | (11) | (9) | (24) | -22% | 63% | 54% |
| Primo Water | Winston Salem | (11) | (10) | (8) | 10% | -38% | -38% |
| Park Sterling | Charlotte | (13) | (13) | 1 | 0% | -1400% | -1400% |
| Trans1 | Wilmington | (18) | (20) | (23) | 10% | 13% | 22% |
| Tranzyme | Durham | (22) | (7) | (11) | -214% | 36% | -100% |
| Bank of the Carolinas | Mocksville | (24) | (4) | (5) | -500% | 20% | -380% |
| Tree.com | Charlotte | (26) | (32) | (6) | 21% | -450% | -333% |
| Biodelivery Sciences International | Raleigh | (27) | (16) | 40 | -63% | -140% | -168% |
| Horizon Lines | Charlotte | (33) | 5 | 20 | -760% | -75% | -265% |
| Ply Gem | Cary | (56) | (64) | (95) | 11% | 33% | 40% |
| International Textile Group | Greensboro | (62) | (41) | (77) | -58% | 44% | 12% |
| Total all 42 Smaller Corps | 308 | 184 | 124 | 67% | 48% | 148% | |
| Grand Total all 75 Corps | 34,386 | 25,727 | 16,697 | 34% | 54% | 106% |
