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Posted By admin on April 19, 2009

The 20 Largest U.S. Companies

Courtesy: Exxon Mobil

1. Exxon Mobil
Rank: 1 (Previous rank: 2)
Revenues ($ millions): 442,851.0
CEO: Rex W. Tillerson
Address: 5959 Las Colinas Blvd.
Irving, TX 75039
Phone: 972-444-1000

Displaced as Corporate Enemy No. 1 — thank you, Wall Street bankers! — Exxon Mobil regains the Fortune 500’s No. 1 slot this year, despite the sharp fall in oil prices. Indeed, if the fourth quarter of 2008 demonstrates anything, it’s that Exxon Mobil is perfectly capable of making billions of dollars even with oil at $50 a barrel or less.

Two pressing questions for shareholders: Will Congress pass a cap-and-trade law that would crush oil profits? And should Exxon Mobil use its $31 billion cash pile to buy up smaller rivals with sunken stocks but attractive oil and gas reserves?

Courtesy: Wal-Mart

2. Wal-Mart Stores
Rank: 2 (Previous rank: 1)
Revenues ($ millions): 405,607.0
CEO: Michael T. Duke
Address: 702 S.W. Eighth St.
Bentonville, AR 72716
Phone: 479-273-4000

Wal-Mart may have fallen to second place, but shareholders surely don’t mind: Last year Wal-Mart boasted far and away the best one-year stock return of any Fortune 500 company: 19.99%. With credit-crunched consumers looking for bargains, Wal-Mart has emerged as a rare recession-buster — consistently growing same-store sales at the expense of Target and other higher-priced rivals.

The biggest threat to Wal-Mart comes not from the economy or other retailers but from Congress: The union-backed “card check” bill, if passed, could lead to rapid unionization of Wal-Mart stores.

Courtesy: Chevron

3. Chevron
Rank: 3 (Previous rank: 3)
Revenues ($ millions): 263,159.0
CEO: David J. O’Reilly
Address: 6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd.
San Ramon, CA 94583

Chevron’s oil-and-gas production declined in both 2007 and 2008. CEO David O’Reilly thinks 2009 is the year to pull out all the stops to get production growing again — spending $23 billion this year on drilling new oil fields and expanding refineries.

No, this doesn’t make much sense to us either, given that energy prices have cratered. In fact, OPEC is cutting production in response to the sharp demand declines. But O’Reilly evidently knows something about the direction of oil prices that OPEC does not.

Courtesy: ConocoPhillips

4. ConocoPhillips
Rank: 4 (Previous rank: 5)
Revenues ($ millions): 230,764.0
CEO: James J. Mulva
Address: 600 N. Dairy Ashford Rd.
Houston, TX 77079

Timing is everything. ConocoPhillips reported a $17 billion loss last year — most of it related to an ill-timed acquisition. (It bought natural gas producer Burlington Resources for $34 billion in 2005, back when gas prices were triple what they are today.)

But when it comes to comedic timing, CEO Jim Mulva’s still got it. At a recent energy conference, Mulva told the story of an oil exec who saves a small child from a dog attack: “As he lay there bleeding, a passing journalist ran over to ask what happened. ‘What a story,’ he said when told of the details. ‘Local hero saves child. By the way, what do you do?’ ‘I’m an oil company CEO,’ was the answer. And the next day the headline read, ‘Corporate fat cat strangles family pet.’ ”

Courtesy: General Electric

5. General Electric
Rank: 5 (Previous rank: 6)
Revenues ($ millions): 183,207.0
CEO: Jeffrey R. Immelt
Address: 3135 Easton Turnpike
Fairfield, CT 06828

For years, critics have complained that far from being a well-diversified conglomerate, GE was really just a financial company disguised as an industrial firm. CEO Jeff Immelt has typically brushed off such complaints, telling FORTUNE in November 2007, for instance, that he saw more opportunity than risk for GE’s finance arm (which veers from business loans to real estate investments). “I like our financial hand right now,” Immelt said.

Well, a year-and-a-half later, trouble in the finance unit — which, to be fair, is still profitable — has cost GE its triple-A credit rating as well as 70% of its stock market valuation.

See top 20 companies HERE!

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