Maryland Companies Pretax Earnings Increase By a Robust 14% in the Second Quarter 2018 and By an Even Higher 19% in the First Quarter 2018, a Nice Earnings Reversal From Their 6% Decline in Annual 2017. In Annual 2016, These Pretax Earnings Increased By 19% Over 2015. ................................................................................

From a review of US SEC filings, there were 38 Companies headquartered in Maryland with stock market caps 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 and First Quarters of both 2018 and 2017 for these 38 Maryland 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
Maryland 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 $
Lockheed Martin	1,420	1,342	6%		1,360	1,035	31%
Marriott Intl	796	716	11%		502	494	2%
T Rowe Price	629	620	1%		600	637	-6%
AGNC Investment Corp	293	24	1121%		424	76	458%
United Therapeutics	218	44	395%		309	264	17%
Host Hotels & Resorts	228	239	-5%		260	155	68%
Laureate Education	313	159	97%		174	(147)	218%
Discovery Inc	367	473	-22%		(17)	276	-106%
McCormick & Co	190	133	43%		149	119	25%
Legg Mason	109	92	18%		124	103	20%
Omega Healthcare Investors	83	68			89	110
WR Grace	64	63			68	61
Choice Hotels Intl	100	76			30	34
Federal Realty Investment Trust	66	78			63	58
Regenxbio	14	(14)			104	(22)	573%
Colfax	61	62			38	51
Eagle Bancorp	50	45			48	42
Walker & Dunlop	53	56			44	56
RLJ Lodging Trust	67	44			25	23
Ciena	70	68			20	42
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust	61	45			24	11
Supernus Pharmaceuticals	34	26			31	16
Sandy Spring Bancorp	32	22			28	23
US Silica Holdings	20	37			39	1
Emergent BioSolutions	66	7			(10)	14
Sinclair Broadcasting Group	26	71			28	99
Corporate Office Properties Trust	21	19			19	23
Medifast	18	11			15	9
Diamondrock Hospitality	28	41			4	10
Saul Centers	16	14			15	17
LaSalle Hotel Properties	41	67			(11)	77
Argan	23	42			7	32
JBG Smith Properties	24	12			(6)	6
WillScot	(6)	(15)			(7)	(17)
2U Inc	(22)	(12)			(16)	(3)
Inovalon Holdings	(18)	9			(23)	6
TerraForm Power	(23)	(2)			(77)	(57)
Under Armour	(121)	(15)			(34)	2
Total all 38 Maryland Companies	5,411	4,767	14%		4,440	3,736	19%