Walmart became the first company in U.S. history to produce $500 billion in revenue, far exceeding every other company to maintain its spot atop the Fortune 500.
Walmart, which is planning to build a new headquarters in its hometown of Bentonville, finished No. 1 on the annual list published by Fortune magazine for the sixth year in the row. It’s held the top position 14 times in all.
The Fortune list was made public today.
Walmart remains far and away the nation’s largest company. Its $500.3 billion in revenue is more than double the revenue of No. 2 Exxon Mobil ($244.4 billion).
Two other Northwest Arkansas companies were among the six Arkansas companies on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest corporations.
No. 80 Tyson Foods had revenue of nearly $38.3 billion last year and moved up two spots from No. 82. The company first appeared on the list in 1982 at No. 471 with annual revenue at $501.7 million.
No. 395 J.B. Hunt Transport Services, which is based on Lowell and held the No. 407 spot this time, had revenue approaching $7.2 billion. The fast-growing company was on the Fortune 500 for the sixth time.
“J.B. Hunt continues to help our customers find value in their supply chain operations, even in today’s challenging landscape,” J.B. Hunt President and CEO John Roberts said in a press release. “Moving up the Fortune 500 list for the sixth consecutive year reflects our focus, dedication, and commitment to excellence, and together we will continue building a bigger, stronger, and better J.B. Hunt.”
Other facts gleaned from the Fortune 500 list published this year:
- Tyson Foods would be the largest company if it were in far larger metropolitan areas: Birmingham, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City and Tampa.
- Walmart’s revenue exceeded the combined total of Amazon, Costco, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s and Lowe’s.
- J.B. Hunt, which has consistently moved up the Fortune 500 since its arrival on the list, is larger than JetBlue, Harley-Davidson and Yum Brands.
- There’s just one trucking company (Ryder System) that’s larger than J.B. Hunt.
The Fortune 500 list was first published in 1955 and just 21 companies had revenue in excess of $1 billion that year.
For more, read CNBC’s recent piece entitled “Meet the family whose business has been the No. 1 Fortune 500 company for 6 straight years”.
