Largest US companies by revenue

Amazon and Walmart lead, each with more than $700 billion of sales a year, followed by a group that mixes Apple, Alphabet and Berkshire Hathaway with UnitedHealth, CVS Health and McKesson. The order inside that group changes from quarter to quarter; the table above is the current ranking from Yahoo Finance's figures.

Because revenue counts everything that passes through a business, not what it keeps. McKesson, Cencora and Cardinal Health sell hundreds of billions of dollars of medicine a year on net margins near one percent, and health insurers collect premiums that are mostly paid straight back out in claims. Ranked by market value they are far down the list; ranked by sales they sit beside the largest technology companies. The net margin column shows the difference.

As Yahoo Finance reports their total revenue, without adjustment. For a bank that is net revenue: interest earned less interest paid, plus fees, which is a smaller figure than a retailer's sales for a business of similar size. Berkshire Hathaway's includes insurance premiums and its investment income and gains, so it moves with the stock market. Every company is measured the same way, which is not the same as every figure meaning the same thing.

Each company's fiscal year that ends in that calendar year. Fiscal years differ: Walmart's ends in January and Apple's in September, so "2024" holds Walmart's year to January 2024 and Apple's to September 2024. Yahoo keeps about four years of annual statements, so only years most of these companies have a figure for are offered, and a company without one is left out and counted in the note under the table. The list is today's companies, so one that has since been taken private or acquired does not appear in an earlier year.

Switch "Rank by" to Profit. Alphabet, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon each earn more than $100 billion a year, followed by Berkshire Hathaway, Meta and JPMorgan Chase, with the large banks, Exxon Mobil, Broadcom and Eli Lilly behind them. It is a different list from revenue: the drug wholesalers and insurers that sell the most keep about one cent in the dollar, and a company with a loss for the period is left out and counted in the note under the table.

Profit is net income attributable to common shareholders as Yahoo Finance reports it — after every cost, interest payment and tax, and after preferred dividends. Berkshire Hathaway's includes unrealised gains and losses on the stocks it owns, so it swings with the market. Analysts forecast earnings per share rather than net income, so a projected year is the consensus EPS times the diluted share count of the last reported year. That runs a little high for a company buying back stock, and because analysts mostly forecast adjusted EPS, which leaves out amortisation and one-off items, it can sit above the net income later reported.

Switch "Rank by" to Market cap. Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft lead, each worth several trillion dollars. Market value is the share price times every share outstanding, so it moves with the market every day. A past year-end is the closing price on the last trading day of December times the diluted shares of the fiscal year ending nearest it, which is close but not exact for a company buying back stock. The 12-month target ranks analysts' mean price target on today's shares: an opinion about the price, not a measure of what the company earns.