In December of 2012 Forbes released The Best Companies to Work for in 2013, which lists the companies they believe are most beneficial to their employees. The ranking was determined by surveying employees within the company based on key workplace factors. Personally, I believe that investing in a stock is investing in the company behind the ticker, and only the best companies should be in your portfolio. So I set out to see if Forbes’ list of great companies would also provide great returns.
The 2011 edition of The Best Companies to Work for listed these stocks in their respective rankings; No. 3 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), No. 5 Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), No. 10 Apple, and No. 11 General Mills. In 2011, Facebook posted a revenue of $3.7 billion in its first year of becoming a public company. In 2012, Facebook recorded $5 billion in revenue, a 37% increase, and an EPS of $0.03. Google had $37.9 billion in revenue and $30.15 EPS in 2011; in 2012 revenue increased 31.9% to $50 billion and EPS increased 8% to $32.82. Apple increased its 2011 revenue of $127.8 billion 28.8% to $164.7 billion in 2012; EPS saw a rise of 25%, increasing from $35.55 in 2011 to $44.55 in 2012. General Mills posted $15 billion in revenue in 2011, which increased 8% in 2012 to $17.12 billion, and EPS saw the same rise, increasing 14.8% from $2.43 in 2011 to $2.79 in 2012.
From this we can see that the publicly traded companies on the list were able to increase both EPS and revenue in the year they were named one of the best companies to work for. Collectively these companies had an increase of 27.5% in revenue and a 16.3% increase in EPS.
In their 2013 list Forbes listed these public companies as the best places to work; No. 1 Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), No. 3 Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:RVBD), No. 6 Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and No. 8 National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI).
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)
To be named in the top 3 of best companies to work for is no coincidence for the social media giant. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has striven to create a company with the motto “Move fast and break things.” Facebook offers many perks to their companies like free food and transportation, cash benefits for new parents, and paid vacation days. Employees give high praise to Facebook, calling it a challenging and rewarding place to work, along with creating something that effects over 1 billion of their users and making the world more connected. 2013 looks to be another year of gains for Facebook with analysts calling for an increase in both EPS and revenue, with revenue climbing to $6.6 billion and $0.57 in EPS.
Riverbed is a technology company that specializes in improving the performance of networks and networked applications. Riverbed products are used to help increase bandwidth and performance with WAN appliances, and also work towards optimizing cloud computing services. Founder and CEO Jerry Kennelly has been credited with being accessible to all of his employees and creating excellent working conditions that include their “really cool game room”. In 2012 Riverbed made $836 million in revenue $0.35 per share. In 2013 Riverbed is expected to break the $1 billion mark in revenue with analysts’ estimates calling for $1.14 billion in revenue and a large increase in EPS jumping to $1.12 per share.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has managed to be one of the best companies to work for several years in a row. Google headquarters, called the Googleplex, has become famous in its own right for its informal culture. Google philosophy is stated to embody principles like “you can make money without doing evil,” “you can be serious without a suit,” and “work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun.” Google has also become known for its perks like free food available 24/7, gym memberships, and its rec room. Google is expected to keep growing its business, with expectations of $61 billion and revenue and a $45 EPS.
National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI) is a producer of automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software. Common applications include data acquisition, instrument control, and machine vision. Employees have said of NATI, “Opportunity to work on projects that interest you, easy to move across groups and find internal opportunities open, honest communication from top management,” “Strong culture aided by no fear of lay-offs and minimal politicking.” In 2012 National Instruments Corp (NASDAQ:NATI) made $1.14 billion in revenue and $0.74 EPS; analysts have called for $1.25 billion in revenue with an EPS of $0.95 in 2013.
What I saw from the list of 2011 companies was that they all enjoyed significant gains in revenue and earnings. Looking at the list of 2013 companies, they are estimated to have an average increase of 521% in EPS, inflated by a 1,800% increase estimate for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and a 25% average revenue increase. We can also predict from the information from the 2011 list that the publicly traded companies in the 2013 list should have significant gains this year. Combining these two predictions, these four companies are looking to have a good year in 2013. Even throwing out the titles of “the best place to work,” these companies are attractive stocks because of their management and growth potential–the titles just proves the effectiveness of the management. If you are a believer that good companies will beat the market in any market, then these companies are worth looking at.
The article Best Company to Work for, Best Company to Invest in? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
