14 DAY TRIAL // The latest rankings published by Fortune put Walmart on the first position in terms of revenue, but with Apple at the top of the list for profitability, with Cupertino outscoring all of its rivals, including Microsoft and Alphabet.
The Fortune 500 ranking, which uses the most recent fiscal year for each company, puts Apple on the first place with $45.6 billion profit, followed by JP Morgan Chase with $24.7 billion and Berkshire Hathaway with $24 billion.
Rival Alphabet, which is the parent company of Google, is fifth in the chart with $19.4 billion profit, while Microsoft is seventh with $16.7 billion. Facebook is far behind with “just” $10.2 billion.
In the full list, Wallmart leads the charts, with Apple only third, while Alphabet and Microsoft land on the 27th and 28th positions, respectively.
Apple is the most admired company in the world
Apple, which is also the number one most admired company and the number 9 in Fortune’s Global 500 rankings, experienced a -14.4 percent profit change, according to Fortune’s own analysis, so the company actually declined in the last financial year.
“After more than a decade of solid growth fueled first by the iPod music player and then by the even more popular iPhone, Apple finally appeared to hit a wall, with lackluster sales—relatively speaking—for other products such as the iPad and Apple Watch and a heavy reliance on upgraded phone models. But the most profitable publicly-traded company in the world is investing heavily in software and its efforts in new areas of opportunity, including automobiles, remain in development (and under wraps),” Fortune says.
The difference between Apple and its rivals in terms of profitability is huge to say the least, despite all the strategy adjustments that the other companies are making.
Microsoft, for example, which is investing heavily in cloud solutions, is posting growing revenue each quarter, with the latest fiscal year bringing a net income of no less than $21.2 billion, which represents a growth of 13 percent year-over-year.