US Big Corps 4Q 2012 Earnings Up 5%

I found 153 US Corps filing with the SEC, which have already released their 4Q 2012 earnings and which also generated Adjusted After-tax Net Income or Net Loss of more than $400 mil in either the 4Q 2012 or in the 4Q 2011.

Adjusted After-tax Net Income was used when this amount was disclosed in the company's earnings release, and it excludes Special, Unusual Items which are significant in amount relative to Reported Net Income.  Because there are so many significant unusual items reported by the Big 6 Financial Corps, I just used Reported Generally Accepted Accounting Principles After-tax Net Income for each of them.  For Insurance companies, I used Operating After-tax Net Income, when it was disclosed by the Insurance company.

There are a handful of very large corporations which haven't reported their 4Q 2012 Earnings yet, including Berkshire Hathaway, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, thus they weren't included below.

These 153 US Corps generated Total Adjusted After-tax Net Income of $192,668 mil in the 4Q 2012, up 5% (5.47% unrounded) from the 4Q 2011 comparable earnings amount of $182,673 mil.

First, here's a summary of the 4Q 2012 and 4Q 2011 Total Earnings in each Industry.

		4Q 2012	4Q 2011
		Non-GAAP	Non-GAAP
		Adjusted	Adjusted	Increase	Increase
		Net	Net	(Decrease)	(Decrease)
	# of	Income	Income	Amount	%
Industry	Corps	mils of $s	mils of $s	mils of $s
Technology	22	50,090	48,919	1,171	2%
Finance	31	32,654	28,698	3,956	14%
Oil and Gas	20	29,668	26,676	2,992	11%
Health Care	16	20,792	21,028	(236)	-1%
Consumer Products	12	15,438	14,544	894	6%
Manufacturing	18	12,872	13,288	(416)	-3%
Retail	8	8,692	7,990	702	9%
TV, Leisure & Entertainment	9	7,702	7,281	421	6%
Conglomerate	1	4,666	4,142	524	13%
Transportation	5	3,605	3,650	(45)	-1%
Communications	4	2,681	2,896	(215)	-7%
Chemicals	4	1,981	1,807	174	10%
Mining	3	1,827	1,754	73	4%
Total	153	192,668	182,673	9,995	5%

There are some salient points related to the above chart.

First, I think it is really great that the key US Technology sector dominates the above earnings.  In the 4Q 2012, these 22 large US Technology companies comprised 26% of the total earnings of all 153 companies.

Second, I think it is really bad for the US economy for the key US Manufacturing sector to have a 3% total earnings decline and for the key US Technology sector to have total earnings growth of only 2%.  These two sectors are where the higher paid US full-time jobs are and unless these two industries generate very robust earnings growth, the hope for a significant increase in US jobs here is not good.  This is why the Obama Administration has so many fine proposals to ramp up the US manufacturing and technology sectors.  Let's hope that the dysfunctional US Congress can follow through with the Obama Administration's wise lead here.

Third, I think it is really good that the total earnings in the Health Care industry declined by 1%.  This is caused by the new Affordable Care Act, which has very effectively caused substantial across-the-board reductions in the annual growth rate of the country's total health care costs.

Fourth,  I think it is really bad for the US economy for the Oil & Gas Industry to experience 11% earnings growth, which is double the total earnings growth of all 153 companies.  The Oil & Gas companies continue to place enormous energy cost pressure on both businesses and individuals.  And by consuming an increasingly large portion of a citizen's take-home pay, these Oil & Gas companies continue to substantially depress US consumer demand.

Fifth, the Retail Industry's total earnings growth of 9% is matched by Walmart's earnings growth.  And Walmart just dominates retail industry earnings, comprising 44% of the total earnings of all of the top 8 retailers.  I don't think it is good for the overall US economy to have one company flat out dominate the US retail landscape.

Sixth, the Total Earnings Per Share (EPS) growth is about 3% higher than the 5.47% total earnings growth.  Massive common stock buyback programs have caused this positive earnings spread.  To just mention two of the hundreds of large corporations which have huge common stock buyback programs, Giant ExxonMobil's 6% earnings growth doubles to 12% on an EPS basis and DirecTV's 31% total earnings growth expands to 52% on an EPS basis.

Seventh, Hurricane Storm Sandy very negatively impacted the earnings of many of these companies.

Eighth, I think that many companies' "Non-GAAP Adjusted After-tax Net Income", which is generally used by the investment community to price common stocks, has some questionable items removed from GAAP Net Income, and this has resulted in Non-GAAP Adjusted After-tax Net Income being somewhat artificially overstated.  And I also think that the SEC must do a much better job in controlling the consistency of items companies use to adjust GAAP Net Income to Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income. 

And ninth, I think it is really bad for the Finance Industry to generate total earnings growth of 14%, nearly triple the 5% total earnings growth of all of these 153 US Big Corps.  But to really get to the Finance earnings story here, it is necessary to break down the Finance sector by sub-sector.  This is done below here:

		4Q 2012	4Q 2011
		Non-GAAP	Non-GAAP
		Adjusted	Adjusted	Increase	Increase
		Net	Net	(Decrease)	(Decrease)
Finance	# of	Income	Income	Amount	%
Subsector	Corps	mils of $s	mils of $s	mils of $s
Big 6	6	16,506	11,679	4,827	41%
National/Regional Banks	5	3,609	2,765	844	31%
Credit Cards	4	3,606	3,248	358	11%
Other Financial	5	2,560	2,356	204	9%
Total Non-Insurance Finance	20	26,281	20,048	6,233	31%
Insurance	11	6,373	8,650	(2,277)	-26%
Total all Finance	31	32,654	28,698	3,956	14%

Yeah, Hurricane Storm Sandy caused the total earnings of these 11 big insurance companies to decline by a massive 26%.

And yeah, that's not a misprint, the 20 big non-insurance finance corps had their total earnings increase by a massive 31%.  And the Big 6, which comprise a truly huge 51% of the total earnings of all 31 of these large finance companies, had their earnings grow by an off-the-charts 41%, in the same quarter that the key US manufacturing corps had their total earnings decline by 3% and the US technology corps had their total earnings increase by only 2%.  This is a US economy that has clearly gone askew, where the US Fed continues to prop up the big finance sector while, at the same time, much of the rest of the country continues to severely suffer economically.

The US Fed should be focusing on driving up overall US demand, improving US unemployment, US underemployment, and economic fairness, rather than continuing to prop up the Big Finance sector.

And the US Congress should be doing likewise, and also eliminating the many egregious corporate tax loopholes, particularly that Big Oil and Big Financial take huge advantage of.

And to best get to substantially increased demand and improved US unemployment, US underemployment and economic fairness, here are the initiatives that would best do that:

First, increase the US federal minimum wage substantially and have it automatically adjusted each year for inflation.  More than any other initiative, this will substantially increase US demand, and immediately.  And it doesn't cost the US Government a dime.

Second, a substantial wisely designed, cost effective US infrastructure program is needed.

Third, a massive program is needed which immediately allows all underwater home mortgages to be refinanced to the lower current prevailing interest rates.

And fourth, a very limited foreign earnings repatriation at a progressively discounted US federal income tax rate program should be enacted for just 2013, targeted at the US manufacturing and US technology sectors, and letting companies earn this huge tax benefit only if they also add and retain a sufficient number of US full-time jobs.  And all of the money raised here by the US Government should be used to fund the above US infrastructure investment program initiative in #2 above.

Thus, I think all of the above four economic initiatives, which in the aggregate would not cost the US Government a dime, should be key components included in the near-term Sequester Solution.

And lastly, below here is the Ongoing, Non-GAAP Adjusted After-tax Net Income of each of these 153 US Big Corps for both the 4Q 2012 and the 4Q 2011.

	4Q 2012	4Q 2011
	Non-GAAP	Non-GAAP
	Adjusted	Adjusted	Increase	Increase
	Net	Net	(Decrease)	(Decrease)
Company	Income	Income	Amount	%
	mils of $s	mils of $s	mils of $s
Technology
Apple	13,078	13,064	14	0%
Microsoft	6,377	6,624	(247)	-4%
IBM	6,129	5,597	532	10%
Google	3,568	3,127	441	14%
Oracle	3,122	2,784	338	12%
Intel	2,609	3,523	(914)	-26%
Cisco Systems	2,569	2,322	247	11%
Hewlett Packard	2,281	2,350	(69)	-3%
Qualcomm	2,204	1,672	532	32%
EMC	1,194	1,065	129	12%
Ebay	927	789	138	17%
Activision Blizzard	891	725	166	23%
Accenture	766	712	54	8%
Dell	679	983	(304)	-31%
Seagate Technology	523	581	(58)	-10%
Western Digital	513	358	155	43%
Thermo Fisher Scientific	493	446	47	11%
Motorola Solutions	476	444	32	7%
Broadcom	462	394	68	17%
Facebook	426	360	66	18%
Texas Instruments	417	537	(120)	-22%
Xerox	386	462	(76)	-16%
Total all 22 Technology	50,090	48,919	1,171	2%
Finance
Big 6
JPMorgan Chase	5,692	3,728	1,964	53%
Wells Fargo	5,090	4,107	983	24%
Goldman Sachs	2,892	1,013	1,879	185%
Citigroup	1,336	998	338	34%
Morgan Stanley	764	(158)	922	584%
Bank of America	732	1,991	(1,259)	-63%
Total all Big 6	16,506	11,679	4,827	41%
Insurance
MetLife	1,373	1,244	129	10%
UnitedHealth	1,244	1,258	(14)	-1%
Prudential Financial	798	855	(57)	-7%
AFLAC	697	684	13	2%
ACE Ltd	492	648	(156)	-24%
Cigna	452	293	159	54%
Aon	416	393	23	6%
AIG	290	1,471	(1,181)	-80%
Allstate	289	735	(446)	-61%
Travelers	278	609	(331)	-54%
Chubb	44	460	(416)	-90%
Total all 11	6,373	8,650	(2,277)	-26%
National/Regional Banks
PNC Financial	973	819	154	19%
Capital One Financial	848	411	437	106%
Bank NY Mellon	718	681	37	5%
BB&T	549	400	149	37%
State Street Corp	521	454	67	15%
Total all 5 National/Regional Banks	3,609	2,765	844	31%
Credit Cards
American Express	1,231	1,192	39	3%
Visa	1,219	1,029	190	18%
MasterCard	605	514	91	18%
Discover Financial Services	551	513	38	7%
Total all 4 Credit Cards	3,606	3,248	358	11%
Other Financial
Annaly Capital Management	701	446	255	57%
BlackRock	690	555	135	24%
FranklinResources	516	481	35	7%
Simon Property Group	370	442	(72)	-16%
Toyota Motor Credit	283	432	(149)	-34%
Total all 5 Other Financial	2,560	2,356	204	9%
Total all 31 Finance	32,654	28,698	3,956	14%
Big Oil and Gas
Exxon Mobil	9,950	9,400	550	6%
Chevron	5,845	5,123	722	14%
ConocoPhillips	1,755	2,051	(296)	-14%
Occidental Petroleum	1,479	1,641	(162)	-10%
Schlumberger	1,439	1,478	(39)	-3%
Phillips 66	1,312	379	933	246%
Valero Energy	1,010	45	965	2144%
Apache	907	1,154	(247)	-21%
Marathon Petroleum	755	(75)	830	1107%
National Oilwell Varco	668	574	94	16%
Enterprise Products Partners	644	618	26	4%
Kinder Morgan Inc	605	228	377	165%
Halliburton	589	906	(317)	-35%
Anakarko Petroleum	457	423	34	8%
EOG Resources	437	309	128	41%
Plains All American Pipeline LP	429	322	107	33%
Hess	409	394	15	4%
Marathon Oil	388	552	(164)	-30%
Devon Energy	316	628	(312)	-50%
Baker Hughes	274	526	(252)	-48%
Total all 20 Oil & Gas	29,668	26,676	2,992	11%
Health Care
Big Pharma
Pfizer	3,512	3,784	(272)	-7%
Johnson & Johnson	3,376	3,129	247	8%
Merck	2,540	2,978	(438)	-15%
Abbott Labs	2,421	2,295	126	5%
Eli Lilly	945	969	(24)	-2%
Bristol Myers Squibb	777	906	(129)	-14%
Total all 6 Big Pharma	13,571	14,061	(490)	-3%
Other Health Care(1)
CVS Caremark	1,206	1,169	37	3%
Amgen	1,088	1,039	49	5%
Medronic	902	898	4	0%
Gilead Sciences	823	743	80	11%
Baxter	700	662	38	6%
Celgene	572	473	99	21%
Walgreens	553	619	(66)	-11%
Covidien Ltd	523	547	(24)	-4%
Stryker	436	390	46	12%
HCA	418	427	(9)	-2%
Total all 10 Other Health Care	7,221	6,967	254	4%
Total all 16 Health Care	20,792	21,028	(236)	-1%
Consumer Products
Procter & Gamble	4,647	4,328	319	7%
Phillip Morris International	2,095	1,886	209	11%
Coca Cola	2,047	1,821	226	12%
PepsiCo	1,704	1,815	(111)	-6%
Altria Group	1,110	1,030	80	8%
Colgate Palmolive	671	634	37	6%
Mondelez International	645	694	(49)	-7%
General Mills	577	527	50	9%
Kimberly Clark	539	508	31	6%
Nike	521	480	41	9%
Estee Lauder	457	401	56	14%
Reynolds American	425	420	5	1%
Total all 12 Consumer Products	15,438	14,544	894	6%
Manufacturing
Ford Motor	1,241	797	444	56%
United Technologies	1,176	1,269	(93)	-7%
Boeing	1,116	1,050	66	6%
3M	1,004	974	30	3%
Caterpillar	980	1,562	(582)	-37%
Honeywell	873	827	46	6%
GM	804	651	153	24%
Lockheed Martin	713	868	(155)	-18%
Deere	689	672	17	3%
Danaher	630	564	66	12%
Raytheon	529	593	(64)	-11%
Northrop Grumman	513	486	27	6%
Corning	498	513	(15)	-3%
General Dynamics	491	714	(223)	-31%
Emerson Electric	454	371	83	22%
Illinois Tool Works	412	427	(15)	-4%
Johnson Controls	384	459	(75)	-16%
Cummins	365	491	(126)	-26%
Total all 18 Manufacturing	12,872	13,288	(416)	-3%
Retail
Walmart	3,825	3,501	324	9%
McDonalds	1,396	1,377	19	1%
Home Depot	1,112	934	178	19%
Target	595	584	11	2%
TJX	462	406	56	14%
Lowes	449	449	0	0%
Starbucks	432	382	50	13%
Costco	421	357	64	18%
Total all 8 Retail	8,692	7,990	702	9%
TV Leisure and Entertainment
Comcast	1,409	1,296	113	9%
Walt Disney	1,382	1,464	(82)	-6%
Time Warner	1,128	946	182	19%
News Corp	1,037	981	56	6%
DirecTV	942	718	224	31%
Time Warner Cable	479	447	32	7%
Viacom	461	591	(130)	-22%
Las Vegas Sands	450	461	(11)	-2%
CBS	414	377	37	10%
Total all 9 TV Leisure and Entertainment	7,702	7,281	421	6%
Conglomerate
General Electric	4,666	4,142	524	13%
Transportation
United Parcel Service	1,275	1,252	23	2%
Union Pacific	1,036	964	72	7%
CSX	443	457	(14)	-3%
FedEx	438	497	(59)	-12%
Norfolk Southern	413	480	(67)	-14%
Total all 5 Transportation	3,605	3,650	(45)	-1%
Communications
AT&T	2,499	2,382	117	5%
Verizon	1,088	1,474	(386)	-26%
CenturyLink	415	343	72	21%
Sprint Nextel	(1,321)	(1,303)	(18)	1%
Total all 4 Communications	2,681	2,896	(215)	-7%
Chemicals
LyondellBasell Industries	645	328	317	97%
CF Industries	471	439	32	7%
Mosaic	451	626	(175)	-28%
Praxair	414	414	0	0%
Total all 4 Chemicals	1,981	1,807	174	10%
Mining
Freeport McMoran	743	640	103	16%
Newmont Mining	552	577	(25)	-4%
Southern Copper	532	537	(5)	-1%
Total all 3 Mining	1,827	1,754	73	4%
Grand Total all 153 Big Corps	192,668	182,673	9,995	5%

(1) Excluded from Other Health Care above was Express Scripts, whose Non-GAAP After-tax Adjusted Net Income increased from $489 mil in the 4Q 2011 to $832 mil in the 4Q 2012, an increase of 70%.  However, this massive 70% earnings growth was due primarily to its acquisition of Medco Health Solutions, much of which was financed with the issuance of additional shares of common stock.  Its Adjusted Net Income Per Share increased by a much lower 28%, going from 82 cents in the 4Q 2011 to $1.05 in the 4Q 2012.....and the $1.05 didn't include the 35 cent GAAP earnings charge from Amortization of the Medco-related Intangible Assets.