The largest and most profitable companies

Forbes recently ranked the world’s biggest public companies, up to 2,000 in number.

A few Indian companies featured such as Reliance Industries, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Canara Bank, ONGC, Indian Oil, Coal India, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Bharat Petroleum, Tata Steel, Adani Enterprises, L&T, ITC and Mahindra and Mahindra.

From the above list, the top 20 companies in order of their profit margins were listed. This measure shows how much of a company’s revenue is profit, calculated by dividing profit by sales.

Some noteworthy findings.

The difference in the profit margins between the first (25%) and the twentieth (2.1%) is huge. You can see it below.

No Indian company features in this list. Companies based in the U.S. and China dominate. Three companies from the U.K., Japan and South Korea also featured in this list.

The world’s largest companies that have the highest profit margins:

1. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China: 25.8%
2. Wells Fargo: 24.8%
3. China Construction Bank: 24.8%
4. JP Morgan Chase: 23.6%
5. Apple: 23%
6. Bank of China: 22.3%
7. Agricultural Bank of China: 21.8%
8. HSBC: 19.2%
9. Citigroup: 18.4%
10. Bank of America: 17.3%
11. China Mobile: 15.9%
12. Verizone: 13.6%
13. Berkshire Hathaway: 11.4%
14. Samsung Electronics: 9.3%
15. AT&T: 9%
16. Pingan: 8.8%
17. Toyota: 8.2%
18. Exxon Mobil: 6.8%
19. Walmart: 3.1%
20. PetroChina: 2.1%

Source: Forbes