West Virginia Banks Continue To Excel on the Earnings Front, Delivering Total Pretax Earnings Growth of an Exceptional 34% in the Most Recent Second Quarter of 2018, an Acceleration of Their 19% Robust Earnings Growth in the First Quarter of 2018 ...............................................................................

From a review of US SEC filings, there were 3 Companies headquartered in West Virginia ….. All Banks ….. with a stock market cap of more than $1 Bil several months ago.

My focus is on Pretax Income rather than on After-Tax Net Income because Income Taxes are simply a transfer of financial wealth between US Corporations and the US Federal, US State and Foreign Governments.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with Company Operating Performance.

From a review of SEC filings, the chart below shows the Gold-Standard US GAAP Pretax Income (Loss) From Continuing Operations for the Second and First Quarters of both 2018 and 2017 for these 3 West Virginia Banks.

	US	US			US	US
	GAAP	GAAP			GAAP	GAAP
	Pretax	Pretax			Pretax	Pretax
	Income	Income			Income	Income
	(Loss)	(Loss)			(Loss)	(Loss)
	June Qtr	June Qtr	Better		Mar Qtr	Mar Qtr	Better
	July Qtr	July Qtr	(Worse)		Apr Qtr	Apr Qtr	(Worse)
West Virginia Companies	or Aug Qtr	or Aug Qtr	%		or May Qtr	or May Qtr	%
Market Caps Above $1 Bil	2018	2017	Change		2018	2017	Change
	mils $	mils $			mils $	mils $
United Bankshares	85	56	52%		80	59	36%
Wesbanco	40	36			41	37
City Holding	26	21			22	24
Total all 3 West Virginia Banks	151	113	34%		143	120	19%

Wisconsin Companies Total Reported Pretax Income in the First Half of 2018 Increased By a Robust 17%. But There Was Noise in the Earnings Numbers and When I Back Out Unusual One-Offs Not Relevant For Evaluating Company Operating Performance For Just 4 of These Companies, I Get a More Realistic As-Adjusted Total Pretax Income Increasing By a Much Lower 6% in the First Half of 2018

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As a Comparison, in Barack Obama's Last Year in Office in 2016, Wisconsin Companies Total Pretax Earnings Growth Was 34% Over That in Annual 2015  
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And Wisconsin Companies Had Their Total Pretax Earnings Increase By 2,620% During the Obama Administration, Going From $433 Mil in 2009 to $11.776 Bil in 2016
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From a review of US SEC filings, there were 34 Companies effectively headquartered in Wisconsin with stock market caps of more than $1 Bil several months ago.

My focus is on Pretax Income rather than on After-Tax Net Income because Income Taxes are simply a transfer of financial wealth between US Corporations and the US Federal, US State and Foreign Governments.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with Company Operating Performance.

The items I reversed out to better reflect Company Operating Performance were Fiserv's $232 mil Gain on Sale of Business in the First Half of 2018, Gardner Denver's Stock Compensation IPO Charge of $150 mil and its $50 mil Loss on Debt Extinguishment, both in the First Half of 2017, Johnson Control's $148 mil Restructuring and Impairment Charges in the First Half of 2017 and Actuant's $117 mil Impairment and Divestiture Costs in the First Half of 2017.

From a review of SEC filings, the chart below shows the Gold-Standard US GAAP Pretax Income (Loss) From Continuing Operations for the First Half of both 2018 and 2017 for these 34 Wisconsin Companies.

	US	US
	GAAP	GAAP
	Pretax	Pretax
	Income	Income
	(Loss)	(Loss)
	6 Months	6 Months
	Ended	Ended
	June	June	Better
	July	July	(Worse)
Wisconsin Companies	or Aug	or Aug	%
Market Caps Above $1 Bil	2018	2017	Change
	mils $	mils $
Johnson Controls Intl plc	1,471	1,111	32%
Fiserv	886	679	30%
WEC Energy Group	761	885	-14%
Rockwell Automation	552	506	9%
Harley Davidson	549	679	-19%
Kohls	484	441	10%
Snap-On	463	432
MGIC Investment Corp	418	355
Oshkosh Corp	345	267
Manpower Group	336	296
A.O. Smith	271	248
Alliant Energy	257	237
Associated Bancorp	191	155
Artisan Partners Asset Mgt	164	119
Regal Beloit	161	131
Schneider National	153	113
Gardner Denver Holdings	143	(199)	172%
Bemis	123	115
Generac Holdings	118	59
Sensient Technologies	97	59
Brady Corp	82	67
MGE Energy	51	55
Plexus Corp	45	59
Marcus Corp	38	31
REV Group	32	35
Marten Transport Ltd	32	29
Spectrum Brands Holdings	26	39
Douglas Dynamics	25	16
Physicians Realty Trust	23	17
Badger Meter	18	30
Rexnord	3	76
Quad/Graphics	(2)	47
Actuant	(21)	(90)	77%
Exact Sciences	(75)	(66)
Total all 34 Wisconsin Companies	8,220	7,032	17%

Also from a review of SEC filings, the chart below shows the Gold-Standard US GAAP Pretax Income (Loss) From Continuing Operations for Annual 2016, 2015 and 2009 for these Wisconsin Companies During the Obama Administration.

					Obama
				Obama	Second	Obama
				Last	Last	First
				Year	Year	Year
				2016	2015	2009
				Audited	Audited	Audited
				Pretax	Pretax	Pretax
				Income	Income	Income
				(Loss)	(Loss)	(Loss)
				From	From	From
Wisconsin Companies	City	State	2016	Continuing	Continuing	Continuing
Stock Market Caps Above $1 Bil	HQs	HQs	FYE	Operations	Operations	Operations
				$ mils	$ mils	$ mils
WEC Energy Group	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	1,507	1,074	591
Fiserv	Brookfield	WI	Dec 16	1,422	1,089	746
Johnson Controls Intl plc	Milwaukee	WI	Sep 16	1,061	931	(1,770)
Harley Davidson	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	1,024	1,150	179
Rockwell Automation	Milwaukee	WI	Sep 16	943	1,128	274
Kohls	Menomonee Falls	WI	Jan 17	875	1,057	1,588
Snap On	Kenosha	WI	Dec 16	804	712	205
Manpower Group	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	701	661	(23)
MGIC Investment Corp	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	515	488	(1,765)
A.O. Smith	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	463	403	91
Alliant Energy	Madison	WI	Dec 16	443	461	120
Bemis	Neenah	WI	Dec 16	351	364	240
Oshkosh Corp	Oshkosh	WI	Sep 16	309	329	(1,180)
Associated Bancorp	Green Bay	WI	Dec 16	288	270	(285)
Regal Beloit	Beloit	WI	Dec 16	266	197	138
Artisan Partners Asset Mgt	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	224	259	48
Sensient Technologies	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	167	149	123
Generac Holdings	Waukesha	WI	Dec 16	156	123	43
Brady Corp	Milwaukee	WI	Jul 16	127	109	97
MGE Energy	Madison	WI	Dec 16	118	113	79
Plexus Corp	Neenah	WI	Sep 16	87	106	45
Rexnord	Milwaukee	WI	Mar 17	82	86	119
Douglas Dynamics	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	64	66	14
Marcus Corp	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	61	39	27
Quad/Graphics	Sussex	WI	Dec 16	58	(925)	55
Marten Transport Ltd	Mondovi	WI	Dec 16	57	61	29
Badger Meter	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	50	41	42
Gardner Denver Holdings	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	(63)	(367)	(138)
Joy Global Inc	Milwaukee	WI	Oct16	(87)	(1,177)	683
Actuant	Menomonee Falls	WI	Aug 16	(130)	25	27
Exact Sciences	Madison	WI	Dec 16	(167)	(158)	(9)
Total all 31 Wisconsin Companies				11,776	8,864	433
Total Pretax Income % Increase
….. 2016 vs 2009 (Obama's Last Year vs First Year)	2,620%
Spectrum Brands Holdings	Middleton	WI	Sep 16	398	193	N/A
Schneider National	Green Bay	WI	Dec 16	266	239	N/A
REV Group	Milwaukee	WI	Oct 16	43	35	N/A
Physicians Realty Trust	Milwaukee	WI	Dec 16	32	13	N/A
Total all 35 Wisconsin Companies				12,515	9,344
Total Pretax Income % Increase
…2016 vs 2015 (Obama's Last Year vs 2nd Last Year)	34%