Alabama Companies Pretax Earnings Increase 8% in the Most Recent Second Quarter 2018, a Huge Earnings Growth Deceleration From the 29% Growth in the First Quarter 2018, the 39% Growth in Annual 2017 and the 132% Growth in Annual 2016 ...............................................................................

From a review of US SEC filings, there were 9 Companies effectively headquartered in Alabama with stock market caps or Total Equity of more than $1 Bil recently.

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 Quarter and First Quarter Ended 2018 and 2017 for these 9 Alabama Companies.

	US	US			US	US
	GAAP	GAAP			GAAP	GAAP
	Pretax	Pretax			Pretax	Pretax
	Income	Income			Income	Income
	(Loss)	(Loss)			(Loss)	(Loss)
	June Qtr	June Qtr	%		Mar Qtr	Mar Qtr	%
	July Qtr	July Qtr	Change		Apr Qtr	Apr Qtr	Change
Alabama Companies	or Aug Qtr	or Aug Qtr	Better		or May Qtr	or May Qtr	Better
Market Caps Above $1 Bil	2018	2017	(Worse)		2018	2017	(Worse)
	mils $	mils $			mils $	mils $
Regions Financial	467	449			542	420	29%
Vulcan Materials	200	157			48	40	20%
Encompass Health	142	108			136	125
Medical Properties Trust	114	73			92	69
Protective Life	99	126			92	112
Warrior Met Coal	91	163	-44%		179	110
Energen Corp	88	46			155	53
ServisFirst Bancshares	42	34			40	30
ProAssurance	28	19			8	40
Total all 9 Alabama Cos	1,271	1,175	8%		1,292	999	29%