These 76 Largest Chicago Area Corps filing with the SEC generated Externally Audited US GAAP Total After-tax Net Income from Continuing Operations of a very impressive $39.5 mil in the most recent fiscal year 2011, up tenfold from the Total After-tax Net Income of $3.5 bil generated by these same 76 Chicago Area companies just three years earlier in 2008, the last year of the Bush/Cheney Administration.
Chicago Area Audited Corporate Earnings Up Tenfold Under Obama
Since corporate earnings drive stock prices, in this post I turn my attention to just how well the stock market prices of these Chicago Area Corps, as well as of Downstate Illinois Corps, have performed since President Obama took office.
Of these 76 Chicago Area Corps, 59 of them had their common stock trading on both January 16, 2009, which is the last day stocks traded before President Obama took office, and also on yesterday's date, Monday, October 15, 2012.
I retrieved all of the below stock market closing price information from the excellent Big Charts.com website.
These 59 Chicago Area Corps had an average stock market price increase of a very impressive 145% since President Obama took office on January 20, 2009. This is more than double both the increase in the S&P 500 Index, which increased by 69%, and the Dow Industrials Index, which increased by 62%, both during the same time span.
So what this means in simplistic terms is that if you invested the same amount of money.....say $1,000.....in the common stock of each of these 59 Chicago Area companies at the closing market price on January 16, 2009, this would have cost you initially $59,000, ignoring any transaction costs, and this stock portfolio would now be worth $144,550.
There are many financially astute Chicago Area citizens, and they already had this all figured out. They probably just didn't previously have the precise average percentage increases tied down.
Chicago Area citizens have to be extremely happy with the stock market performance of their many fine Chicago Area companies during the Obama Administration.
And Chicago Area citizens also must be very pleased with how the Obama Administration worked so hard and very effectively on so many fronts to create a US economic environment that permitted these Chicago Area companies to flat out flourish. This highly successful effort created a robust US economic environment which was quite a change from what existed in the just horrible financial meltdown, near Depression year of 2008.
When I think of the Obama Administration, the thought that comes top of mind to me is widespread competence, all throughout the upper ranks of the US government. But frankly, it's also pretty clear to me that the Obama Administration is just not very good at selling its many significant accomplishments, particularly on the economic front.
There were also five Downstate Illinois Corps which generated After-tax Net Income or Net Loss of at least $100 mil in any of the most recent five years. These five Downstate Illinois Corps had their average stock prices increase by 37% during the Obama Administration, much less than the 145% average achieved by Chicago Area Corps.
Below here are the common stock market closing prices of each of these 59 Chicago Area and 5 Downstate Illinois Corps at both the most recent date, and also at the date just before President Obama took office, as well as the percentage stock market price changes for this period of time.
| Market | Market | Percentage | ||
| Illinois | Price | Price | Increase | |
| HQs | 10-15-12 | 1-16-09 | (Decrease) | |
| S&P 500 Index | 1,440.13 | 850.12 | 69% | |
| Dow Industrials Index | 13,424.23 | 8,281.22 | 62% | |
| Chicago Area Largest Corps | ||||
| Ulta Salon | Bolingbrook | $95.30 | $6.05 | 1475% |
| Tenneco | Lake Forest | $28.25 | $2.25 | 1156% |
| Kapstone Paper & Packaging | Northbrook | $22.74 | $2.10 | 983% |
| Brunswick | Lake Forest | $23.55 | $3.13 | 652% |
| Discover Financial Services | Riverwoods | $39.39 | $7.60 | 418% |
| CF Industries | Deerfield | $209.77 | $48.52 | 332% |
| LKQ Corp | Chicago | $20.13 | $6.02 | 234% |
| Strategic Hotels | Chicago | $5.84 | $1.78 | 228% |
| Jones Lang Lasalle | Chicago | $75.67 | $26.43 | 186% |
| WW Grainger | Lake Forest | $215.86 | $76.52 | 182% |
| CNH Global NV | Burr Ridge | $41.96 | $15.13 | 177% |
| Packaging Corp America | Lake Forest | $35.60 | $13.33 | 167% |
| Hillshire Brands | Downers Grove | $26.45 | $9.98 | 165% |
| Taylor Capital Group | Wheeling | $17.13 | $6.51 | 163% |
| USG | Chicago | $21.82 | $9.47 | 130% |
| Ventas | Chicago | $64.31 | $29.45 | 118% |
| Accenture | Chicago | $70.17 | $32.68 | 115% |
| Acco Brands | Lincolnshire | $6.19 | $2.94 | 111% |
| Kemper | Chicago | $31.17 | $14.94 | 109% |
| Equity Residential | Chicago | $56.21 | $27.27 | 106% |
| Anixter | Glenview | $55.29 | $27.17 | 103% |
| CNA Financial | Chicago | $28.23 | $13.89 | 103% |
| First Industrial Realty Trust | Chicago | $13.48 | $6.73 | 100% |
| Zebra Technologies | Lincolnshire | $36.33 | $18.52 | 96% |
| Molex | Lisle | $25.71 | $13.77 | 87% |
| Terra Nitrogen LP | Deerfield | $211.45 | $114.55 | 85% |
| Stericycle | Lake Forest | $91.28 | $50.69 | 80% |
| Dover | Downers Grove | $56.11 | $31.20 | 80% |
| IDEX | Lake Forest | $40.41 | $22.88 | 77% |
| Calamos Asset Mgt | Naperville | $11.00 | $6.27 | 75% |
| United Continental | Chicago | $20.40 | $11.95 | 71% |
| United Stationers | Deerfield | $26.46 | $15.54 | 70% |
| Boeing | Chicago | $72.25 | $42.46 | 70% |
| Illinois Tool Works | Glenview | $58.87 | $34.63 | 70% |
| Aptargroup | Crystal Lake | $51.45 | $30.44 | 69% |
| CME Group | Chicago | $56.86 | $34.90 | 63% |
| McDonalds | Oak Brook | $93.50 | $59.67 | 57% |
| GATX | Chicago | $43.23 | $28.50 | 52% |
| Arthur Gallagher | Itasca | $36.19 | $24.35 | 49% |
| Abbott Labs | Abbott Park | $72.05 | $49.92 | 44% |
| Allstate | Northbrook | $41.12 | $28.77 | 43% |
| Beam | Deerfield | $57.05 | $40.12 | 42% |
| Walgreens | Deerfield | $36.17 | $26.91 | 34% |
| Aon | Chicago | $53.32 | $41.59 | 28% |
| Sears Holdings | Hoffman Estates | $60.32 | $49.21 | 23% |
| Hospira | Lake Forest | $32.26 | $27.04 | 19% |
| OfficeMax | Naperville | $7.28 | $6.49 | 12% |
| Baxter | Deerfield | $60.93 | $54.95 | 11% |
| RR Donnelley | Chicago | $10.73 | $11.16 | -4% |
| Northern Trust | Chicago | $46.66 | $51.08 | -9% |
| US Cellular | Chicago | $37.32 | $41.46 | -10% |
| Tellabs | Naperville | $3.37 | $3.94 | -14% |
| Telephone & Data Systems | Chicago | $24.87 | $29.45 | -16% |
| Old Republic | Chicago | $9.95 | $11.88 | -16% |
| Navistar International | Lisle | $21.66 | $28.47 | -24% |
| WMS Industries | Waukegan | $16.01 | $24.58 | -35% |
| DeVry | Downers Grove | $23.42 | $58.99 | -60% |
| Career Education | Schaumburg | $3.88 | $21.41 | -82% |
| Old Second Bancorp | Aurora | $1.43 | $9.01 | -84% |
| Average Increase: All 59 Chicago Area Largest Corps | 145% | |||
| Downstate Illinois Corps | ||||
| Caterpillar | Peoria | $82.81 | $39.55 | 109% |
| Deere | Moline | $83.23 | $39.88 | 109% |
| RLI Corp | Peoria | $68.02 | $56.81 | 20% |
| Archer Daniels Midland | Decatur | $28.10 | $25.62 | 10% |
| First Busey | Urbana | $4.81 | $13.18 | -64% |
| Average Increase: All 5 Downstate Illinois Corps | 37% | |||
| Average Increase: All 64 Illinois Largest Corps | 137% | |||
| S&P 500 Index | 1,440.13 | 850.12 | 69% | |
| Dow Industrials Index | 13,424.23 | 8,281.22 | 62% |
