Five Arkansas Companies Make Fortune 500 List
by May 8, 2006 12:00 am 95 views
Fortune magazine recently released its annual list of the top 500 companies in the U.S., ranked by 2005 revenue.
Five of those companies are located in the Natural State, and the top two are based in Northwest Arkansas: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville (No. 2) and Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale (No. 80). The other three are Murphy Oil Corp. of El Dorado (No. 193), Alltel Corp. (No. 251) and Dillard’s Inc. (No. 294), both of Little Rock.
Wal-Mart slipped from its No. 1 ranking in 2005, being eclipsed by Exxon Mobil Corp. of Irving, Texas. Wal-Mart’s 2005 revenue was $315.7 billion, up 9.6 percent from 2004, while ExxonMobil’s was $339.9 billion, up 25.5 percent, according to the magazine.
Tyson Foods slipped from a No. 72 ranking in 2005, posting $26 billion in revenue, a negative 1.6 percent change, according to Fortune.
The five Arkansas companies’ combined revenue in 2005 was $370.7 billion by Fortune’s count.
Nationally, Arkansas was 23rd on the list of 41 states with Fortune 500 companies, falling behind Oklahoma.