Forbes 500

<h2 id="quantifying-the-largest-companies">Quantifying the largest companies</h2>

<p>Various methods exist in determining the largest corporations.  Forbes Magazine, for example, takes into consideration profit, revenue, market capitalization, and value of assets when ranking companies by size; the magnitude of any one of these factors alone may not necessarily be indicative of a firm's overall ranking.
</p><p>The value of a firm's <a href="/facts/Assets/o7TARXhB">assets</a> is typically derived from a company's ability to generate cash via its ownership and control of inputs and/or distribution of the final product. Banks and financial institutions, for example, tend to have a large number of assets due to loans and investments, however, a large portion of these do not actually belong to the firm since these assets are customers' deposits.
</p><p><a href="/facts/Fortune_500/BLeHWymz">Fortune 500</a> ranks companies by revenue. This method is heavily biased towards distributors such as <a href="/facts/Walmart/E6dPQV2m">Walmart</a>, which may have a high volume of sales but may be operating on very thin <a href="/facts/Profit_margin/jlXaP9t0">profit margins</a>.
</p><p>Another method might be to look at the <a href="/facts/Market_capitalization/LhcMMLHs">market capitalization</a> of the company. However, this price is dictated by the perceived value of the company and its prospects. At one point in the late nineties, <a href="/facts/Cisco_Systems/ocDgQt6T">Cisco Systems</a> would have been the biggest company by this measure, however the <a href="/facts/Dot-com_bubble/dCFWQt0s">dot-com bubble</a> crash reduced its perceived value dramatically. Another example would be <a href="/facts/Amazon.com/YzUTUVE8">Amazon.com</a>, which despite being barely profitable, has a very large market cap rivaling or exceeded established American companies due to the general market sentiment about its innovations.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Forbes_Global_2000/cpxW0UVa">Forbes Global 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Fortune_500/BLeHWymz">Fortune 500</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/List_of_largest_employers/MSwjgAKz">List of largest employers</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/List_of_largest_companies_by_revenue/04ggJsHf">List of largest companies by revenue</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/List_of_corporations_by_market_capitalization/3zIFBx5h">List of corporations by market capitalization</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"Forbes 500". Investopedia. Retrieved August 25, 2018. <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/forbes500.asp" target="_blank">https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/forbes500.asp</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"Forbes 500". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved August 25, 2018. <a href="https://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Forbes+500" target="_blank">https://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Forbes+500</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"The Forbes 500s". Forbes. March 28, 2003. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2018. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/2003/03/26/500sland.html" target="_blank">https://www.forbes.com/2003/03/26/500sland.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Forbes 500 open-in-new

Forbes 500