The 42 Largest Minnesota Cos Posted Modest Total Audited Annual Pretax Income Growth in the Most Recent Three Years, Up 8% in 2018, Up 3% in 2017 and Up 6% in 2016

Since Minnesota is one of the 12 Super Tuesday US States Holding Their 2020 Democratic Presidential Early Primary on March 3, 2020, I Think It Might Be Helpful to Research Just How Minnesota Companies Have Performed on the Audited Pretax Earnings Front in the Most Recent Three Years
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The Big 2 Minnesota Health Care Cos ..... UnitedHealth Group and Medtronic ..... Posted Total Audited Pretax Income Growth of 16% in 2018, of 15% in 2017 and of 18% in 2016.  This Explosive Excessive Earnings Growth Which Contributes to an Upwardly Rising US Health Care Cost Curve Would Be Moderated Significantly With Medicare For All Who Want It as an Option on the Health Care Insurance Exchange, a Cost-Effective, Wise Proposal Supported By Mayor Pete and Several Other Democratic US Presidential Candidates
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Excluding UnitedHealth Group and Medtronic, the Remaining 40 Minnesota Cos Posted Much More Moderate Total Audited Pretax Income, Which Was Up 4% in 2018, Down 2% in 2017 and Up 2% in 2016
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From a review of SEC filings, I found 42 Minnesota Companies with stock markets caps of above $1 bil sometime in 2018.

  

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 Audited Gold-Standard US GAAP Pretax Income (Loss) From Continuing Operations for the Fiscal Years Ended (FYEs) 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 for each of these 42 Minnesota Companies.

			Most
			Recent	Audited	Audited	Audited	Audited
			Annual	Pretax	Pretax	Pretax	Pretax
			Audited	Income	Income	Income	Income
	Minnesota		Financial	(Loss)	(Loss)	(Loss)	(Loss)
Minnesota Companies	City	State	Sts	FYE	FYE	FYE	FYE
Stock Market Caps > $1 Bil	HQs	HQs	FYE	2018	2017	2016	2015
				$ mils	$ mils	$ mils	$ mils
Big 2 Health Care Cos
UnitedHealth Group	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	15,944	14,023	11,863	10,231
Medtronic plc	Minneapolis	MN	Apr 18	5,675	4,602	4,336	3,486
Total Big 2 Health Care Cos				21,619	18,625	16,199	13,717
………. % Increase From Preceding Year				16%	15%	18%
All Other Cos
US Bancorp	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	8,678	7,517	8,105	8,030
3M	Saint Paul	MN	Dec 18	7,000	7,548	7,053	6,823
Target	Minneapolis	MN	Jan 19	3,676	3,630	3,961	4,923
Travelers Companies	Saint Paul	MN	Dec 18	2,961	2,730	4,053	4,740
Ameriprise Financial	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	2,484	2,214	1,592	2,142
General Mills	Minneapolis	MN	May 18	2,220	2,356	2,492	1,846
Best Buy	Richfield	MN	Jan 19	1,888	1,817	1,816	1,310
Ecolab	Saint Paul	MN	Dec 18	1,805	1,762	1,649	1,318
XCEL Energy	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	1,442	1,690	1,704	1,527
Hormel Foods	Austin	MN	Oct 18	1,181	1,279	1,317	1,057
Fastenal	Winona	MN	Dec 18	987	873	790	826
CH Robinson Worldwide	Eden Prairie	MN	Dec 18	880	728	812	823
Mosaic	Plymouth	MN	Dec 18	547	391	227	1,101
Polaris Industries	Medina	MN	Dec 18	429	319	313	686
Graco	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	411	347	97	475
TCF Financial	Wayzata	MN	Dec 18	402	245	338	315
Pentair plc	Golden Valley	MN	Dec 18	380	173	221	N/A
Toro Co	Bloomington	MN	Oct 18	372	353	330	291
Donaldson Co	Minneapolis	MN	Jul 18	364	322	257	289
nVent Electric plc	St. Louis Park	MN	Dec 18	269	313	315	266
Deluxe	Shoreview	MN	Dec 18	213	313	340	328
Patterson Cos	Saint Paul	MN	Apr 18	179	251	302	274
HB Fuller	Saint Paul	MN	Nov 18	165	69	171	144
ALLETE	Duluth	MN	Dec 18	159	187	176	167
Northern Oil & Gas	Minnetonka	MN	Dec 18	144	(11)	(295)	(1,178)
Bio-Techne	Minneapolis	MN	Jun 18	126	112	147	154
Otter Tail	Fergus Falls	MN	Dec 18	97	100	83	80
Proto Labs	Maple Plain	MN	Dec 18	92	74	64	68
Sleep Number	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	87	91	76	75
Piper Jaffray	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	75	(29)	(31)	86
Apogee Enterprises	Minneapolis	MN	Feb 19	59	110	123	97
MTS Systems	Eden Prairie	MN	Sep 18	44	23	34	59
Tennant	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	36	(1)	66	50
SPS Commerce	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	28	11	8	7
Cardiovascular Systems	Saint Paul	MN	Jun 18	2	(2)	(56)	(33)
Two Harbors Investment	Minnetonka	MN	Dec 18	(2)	298	330	476
Stratasys Ltd	Eden Prairie	MN	Dec 18	(6)	(31)	(87)	(1,384)
Surmodics	Eden Prairie	MN	Sep 18	(8)	7	17	18
Inspire Medical Systems	Golden Valley	MN	Dec 18	(22)	(18)	(19)	(21)
Ceridian HCM Holding	Minneapolis	MN	Dec 18	(30)	(54)	(99)	(80)
Total all 40 Other Cos				39,814	38,107	38,792	38,175
………. % Change From Preceding Year				4%	-2%	2%
Total all 42 Minnesota Cos				61,433	56,732	54,991	51,892
………. % Increase From Preceding Year				8%	3%	6%