As times seem uncertain and many companies seem to be on the brink of collapse, or have even collapsed due to the pandemic, let’s change tactics and take a look at the 10 most profitable companies in the world in 2020. There is a difference between the biggest companies in the world and the most profitable. For example, Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the entire world, when you take into considerations its revenues and the number of people it employs, but is it also the most profitable? The answer is no. In fact, Amazon made losses for several years as it made gains in market share, and is now almost a monopoly with little oversight. Even now, though it has started turning profits and is in the top 100 profitable companies, it still fails to make our list, as the profits are not significant enough yet. In fact, Walmart is the company with the highest revenue in the world, yet it failed to make our list. In fact, none of the top 5 companies with the highest revenues in the world made the list.
That doesn’t mean that you won’t find familiar big names in our list. In fact it is quite likely that you’ll know most, if not all of the companies especially since most of them are major United States companies. The US has been called a capitalist’s dream, and has produced huge companies with revenues surpassing the GDPs of several nations. It is the only country in the world to produce trillion dollar companies, four of them at last count, which is simply massive.
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In fact, 7 of the 10 companies on our list are from the United States of America, with one contribution each from China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. To determine our rankings, we didn’t just take a look at their profits, which were available here, but we also considered the return on its total assets. There are a myriad number of ways that once can assess the profitability of a company, employing dozens of ratios such as acid test ratio, liquidity ratio, return on capital employed and return on assets. We have used the total profits and return on assets for our ranking, as the return on assets shows what the company is making back on every dollar it invests on its assets. If you want to compare this list to previous years, you may be interested in the most profitable companies in the world in 2017.
10. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
While Johnson & Johnson has been in the news in recent years due to the massive court cases successfully once against them, with one jury verdict hitting them with an astounding $8 billion in fines, it is still one of the biggest companies out there, with profits of $17.2 billion and a strong return on assets of 11.1$.
Pixabay/Public Domain
9. Gazprom PAO (MCX:GAZP)
Gazprom is an energy company, and perhaps one of the few companies on this list you may not have heard of. It’s a Russian company and is by far the most profitable company in Russia. In fact, it’s the largest national gas company in the entire world. It had a profit of $22.7 billion but has the lowest return on assets in our list at 6.84%, but then Russians aren’t famous for their efficiency.
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)
Ah, who hasn’t heard of Facebook? I remember years ago when Facebook reached 500 million users and it was considered to be a huge deal. There are now 2.5 billion active users of Facebook, or more than a third of the entire world’s population. Facebook now has so much power, it can even influence elections. Of course, profits of $21 billion and a return on assets of 15.17% definitely does not hurt either.
Pixabay/Public Domain
7. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC)
Chances are you are reading this article on a computer powered by Intel processors. I know I am. Intel’s perhaps on of the most famous companies in the world precisely because most personal computers are powered by Intel, earning it profits of $22.7 billion and a return on assets of a healthy 15.37%.
Pixabay/Public Domain
6. Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)
The second of our three non US companies to make the list of 10 most profitable companies in the world is Alibaba, founded by Jack Ma. A technology company whose primary claim to fame is their ecommerce website, which broke records on Black Friday amassing sales of $38 billion in a single day, instrumental in the company making profits of $24.7 and a return on assets of 13.04%.
Pixabay/Public Domain
5. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
Alphabet was the latest of the four companies I mentioned earlier to break the trillion dollar barrier. It is the parent company of Google, so we all know where the majority of its $34.5 billion and 12.62% return on assets is majorly derived from.
Pixabay/Public Domain
4. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B)
Berkshire Hathaway, run by one of the richest men in the world in Warren Buffet is a conglomerate holding company which owns several major companies such as Dairy Queen and Duracell, in addition to holding minority interests in companies such as Apple, Coca Cola and Bank of America. It is in fact the largest financial services company in the world and earned astounding profits of $81.4 billion, the highest profits by an American company in this list by far. However, its return on assets was less impressive at 9.95%.
Pixabay/Public Domain
3. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Microsoft is the reason why Bill Gates has held the title of richest person in the world for so many years, before being dethroned by Jeff Bezos in what seems like a permanent shift. Just like with Intel, chances are you reading this on a laptop running Windows, Microsoft’s greatest creation. It earned profits of $46.3 billion one of the highest returns on assets of 16.22%.
Pixabay/Public Domain
2. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Apple was the first company to break the trillion dollar market cap, which was barely a surprise; it has been at the top or near the top of the most valuable companies listing for years. There has been no decline in its performance still, led by strong sales of its computers and especially the iPhone which rejuvenated the country, and has played an important roles in the company earning $57.2 billion in profits and an incredible 17.85% return on assets.
Pixabay/Public Domain
1. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) (Tadawul: 2222)
Saudi Arabian Oil Company, or Aramco as its most popularly known, easily tops the list of 10 most profitable companies in the world in 2020. Not only are its profits of $88.2 billion completely unmatched, so is its return of 22.14%; no other company has even managed 20%.
Aramco was recently listed on the stock exchange where 3 billion shares raised the company a then record $25.6 billion. In January, the company was valued at $1.87 trillion dollars, again by far the highest in the world.
Pixabay/Public Domain
