Monday, October 8, 2012

Red State Georgia 51 Largest Corps Audited Annual Earnings Improve By $29.7 Bil During Obama Administration

From an extensive review of SEC filings, I found a just huge number of 51 Corps headquartered in the Red State of Georgia with externally audited under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) After-tax Net Income or Net Loss from Continuing Operations of at least $100 mil in any of the most recent five fiscal years.

These 51 Largest Georgia Corps filing with the SEC generated Audited US GAAP Total After-tax Net Income from Continuing Operations of a very impressive $24.0 bil in the most recent fiscal year 2011, which was an earnings improvement of a massive $29.7 bil above the Total After-tax Net Loss of $5.7 bil generated by these same 51 Largest Georgia companies just three years earlier in 2008, the last year of the Bush/Cheney Administration.

So if the question to be answered is whether, in the aggregate, these 51 Largest Georgia Corps are better off now than they were in the last year of the Bush/Cheney Administration, the answer is clearly yes, and by a massive $29.7 bil better, as audited earnings performance is measured by the prestigious US Accounting Profession.

So it's not just the Blue States and Swing States which have had their largest and somewhat largest corporations generate very strong earnings improvement during the Obama Administration.   Corporations in all Red States, including Georgia, have done likewise.  This just shows that the Obama Administration has been evenhanded in focusing on creating an excellent US economic environment that have permitted businesses all throughout the country to prosper.

But a second salient story here relates to these 51 Largest Georgia companies total earnings growth by year.

These 51 Georgia Corps generated Total After-tax Net Income of a very impressive $19.5 bil in 2007.

Then the Great Recession hit all throughout the US, and these 51 Georgia companies had their Total Profits of $19.5 bil in 2007 more than completely wiped out in 2008, with a Total After-tax Net Loss of these 51 Georgia Corps of $5.7 bil in 2008.  Yeah, that's a total profit decline of $25.2 bil in just one year.....2008.

Enter President Obama, and both the US House and the US Senate under Democratic Control in both 2009 and 2010.

With much help from the Obama Economic Stimulus, which started kicking in in the latter part of 2009, these 51 Georgia Corps saw their Total After-tax Net Income jump by $15.5 bil in 2009, or an increase of an off-the-charts 270% in just this one year 2009.

And these 51 Largest Georgia Corps weren't done with this torrid earnings growth.  In 2010, they increased their earnings by another $14.4 bil, or by another 148%.

Yeah, that's back-to-back triple-digit percentage increases in total earnings, which totaled $29.9 bil for 2009 and 2010 combined, and which more than recovered the $25.2 bil earnings lost in the financial meltdown year of 2008.   

And yes, the resultant Total After-tax Net Income of $24.2 bil in 2010 even exceeded by 24% the previous high pre-Great Recession/Near Depression Pretax Profits of these same 51 Georgia Companies of $19.5 bil generated in 2007.  Now that is what I call a quick and massive profit recovery, and then some.

Enter the Tea Party election in November 2010, with Uncompromising, Very Conservative Republicans taking control of the US House.  The end result was that these 51  Largest Georgia Corps had their total earnings decline in 2011.  And this happened again in the first half of 2012.

This is why it is so critical to anyone who views the US economy as the key issue in this US election, to not only reelect Democratic Moderate Barack Obama as President, but to also vote to make sure that Democratic Moderates regain control of the US House.  Then much needed wisely-designed, directly-targeted, sustainable job-creating Economic Stimulus will quickly pass, including desperately needed job-creation-strings-attached Business Income Tax Reform, and this time the economic benefits will be more fairly shared among all of the country, not just among the very wealthy and the Largest and somewhat Large Corporations. 

So, why is it that the total earnings growth is so substantially lower in both 2011 and in the first half of 2012 in Georgia, and in many other US States all over the country, when the US House was under Very Conservative Republican control, than it was in both 2009 and in 2010, when the US House was under Democratic control?

Well, this Very Conservative Republican US House is only interested in two economic issues period.....extreme austerity and a no-job-creation-strings-attached top income tax rate cut for the very wealthy.....and they have absolutely no interest in compromise.  Thus, nearly every wisely-designed, much-needed Obama Administration economic initiative in 2011 and 2012 has been stopped by this US House, and also stopped by filibustering by US Senate Republicans.

And the losers here were not just the unemployed, the underemployed, the dwindling middle class, and the people trying to get into the middle class.  US Businesses were also big losers, by having their strong earnings growth in both 2009 and 2010 substantially decelerate in both 2011 and in the first half of 2012.


Below here is the Audited under US GAAP After-tax Net Income or Net Loss from Continuing Operations for each of these 51 Largest Georgia Corps for each of the most recent five fiscal years.  A clear majority of these 51 Corporations have a December Fiscal Year End (FYE).




FYE FYE FYE FYE FYE


2011 2010 2009 2008 2007


Reported Reported Reported Reported Reported


Audited Audited Audited Audited Audited


After-Tax After-Tax After-Tax After-Tax After-Tax


Net Income Net Income Net Income Net Income Net Income

(Loss) (Loss) (Loss) (Loss) (Loss)

HQs mil $s mil $s mil $s mil $s mil $s
Georgia Largest Corps
Coca Cola Atlanta 8,634 11,859 6,906 5,874 6,027
Home Depot Atlanta 3,883 3,338 2,620 2,312 4,210
United Parcel Service Atlanta 3,804 3,338 1,968 655 496
AFLAC Columbus 1,964 2,344 1,497 1,254 1,634
Delta Air Lines Atlanta 854 593 (1,237) (8,922) 397
Coca Cola Enterprises Atlanta 749 624 576 514 524
SunTrust Banks Atlanta 660 206 (1,552) 807 1,647
Invesco Ltd Atlanta 622 637 209 421 887
AGCO Duluth 585 220 135 386 233
Genuine Parts Atlanta 565 476 400 475 506
Intercontinental Exchange Atlanta 522 408 314 301 241
RPC Atlanta 296 147 (23) 83 87
Invesco Mortgage Capital Atlanta 287 104 18 0 0
Graphic Packaging Marietta 275 11 56 (99) (49)
Equifax Atlanta 240 243 224 255 253
Total System Services Columbus 223 209 226 253 239
Global Payments Atlanta 218 229 223 207 161
Mohawk Industries Calhoun 178 190 (1) (1,453) 714
Primerica Duluth 178 258 495 168 594
FleetCor Technologies Norcross 147 108 89 97 62
Rock-Tenn Norcross 141 226 222 82 82
Newell Rubbrmaid Atlanta 135 288 286 (48) 478
Flowers Foods Thomasville 123 137 134 122 98
Aaron's Atlanta 114 118 113 86 73
Carters Atlanta 114 146 116 78 (76)
Acuity Brands Atlanta 106 79 85 149 129
Rollins Atlanta 101 90 84 69 65
Novelis Atlanta Atlanta 90 160 465 (1,922) (114)
Piedmont Office Realty Johns Creek 90 112 63 118 99
Cumulus Media Atlanta 64 29 (127) (362) (224)
Georgia Gulf Atlanta 58 43 131 (255) (245)
NCR Duluth 50 116 62 253 183
Asbury Automotive Group Duluth 48 37 26 (325) 42
Crawford & Co Atlanta 45 28 (116) 32 16
Earthlink Atlanta 35 81 287 187 (65)
Oxford Industries Atlanta 29 16 1 (266) 36
Post Properties Atlanta 26 (7) (96) (96) 107
CompuCredit Atlanta 16 (106) (561) (202) NA
Gray Television Atlanta 9 23 (23) (202) (23)
Arris Group Suwanee (18) 64 91 (130) 92
Mueller Water Products Atlanta (38) (45) (997) 42 48
Synovus Financial Columbus (61) (834) (1,434) (580) 338
Euramax Holdings Norcross (63) (38) (84) (478) (43)
HUGHES Telematics Atlanta (85) (90) (164) (57) (32)
Travelport LTD Atlanta (134) (71) (128) (207) (467)
Cousins Properties Atlanta (135) (24) 14 24 15
Beazer Homes Atlanta (200) (30) (173) (779) (346)
United Community Banks Blairsville (227) (504) (229) (63) 58
First Data Atlanta (336) (847) (1,015) (3,608) 307
Gentiva Health Services Atlanta (459) 55 67 149 30
HD Supply Atlanta (519) (584) (469) (1,145) (70)







Total all 51 Largest Georgia Corps 24,003 24,210 9,774 (5,746) 19,454







Annual Increase (Decrease)





…..Amount
(207) 14,436 15,520 (25,200)
…..Percentage
-1% 148% 270% -130%







Three Year Increase (2008-2011) Under Obama




…..Amount
29,749



…..Percentage
518%