Our seventh annual BusinessWeek 50 ranking of the top-performing companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index appears at a worrisome time in our nation's history. In past years when we assembled this ranking, the big issues were economic: the rise and fall of the tech sector, corporate malfeasance, and recession. This time around, the economy and the markets have been roiled by the anticipation of war, the flagging confidence that's part of it, and higher oil prices. To make smart decisions about your investments in such uncertain times, you need the best information around. And that's what you'll get in this year's BW50 special annual issue.
Our BW50 rankings go far beyond the results of just a single year. We look at eight different measures of a company's performance, including sales and profit growth, over the past three years. We then give added weight to absolute sales, because it is difficult for the largest companies to post big percentage gains. Our analysis has been refined further to give more weight for strong balance sheets, as measured by debt-to-capitalization ratios.
Recent years have seen some of the best times for the economy, as well as some of the worst. Only the best companies do well no matter what and this year's list is a mix of solid performers for the long haul: health-related companies; consumer-goods producers; tech powerhouses such as Microsoft (MSFT
), Dell (DELL
), and eBay (EBAY
); and corporations like United Parcel Service (UPS
) that may not be glamorous but deliver consistent profits. One company in this year's BW50, Merck (MRK
), has made the list all seven years.
For those still nervous about the markets, our Investing for Growth section reports on the best ways to measure corporate profits -- a big issue amid the flood of earnings restatements we've seen recently. We also explore investment possibilities with seasoned pros who have strong track records, among them Tom McManus of Banc of America Securities.
In our Tech Outlook section, we look at emerging technologies that may wind up being both powerful and profitable once the economy emerges from its funk. Companies including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ
) are combining pharmaceuticals and medical devices in novel ways to help patients with heart problems. The business of telephony over the same cables that bring you TV may be set for a major growth spurt. Other new technologies will boost network security for corporate computer users -- more important than ever amid continuing fears of more terrorist attacks.
This year's team was led by Assistant Managing Editor Frank J. Comes, with Senior Editors Mary Kuntz, Jeffrey M. Laderman, and Neil Gross. They were assisted by Associate Editors Dan Beucke, Diane Brady, and Robert McNatt, Scoreboards Editor Frederick F. Jespersen, Art Director Steven Taylor, Photo Editor Lawrence Lippmann, and the dozens of BusinessWeek correspondents who researched and wrote this issue. Their work will help you navigate these tumultuous times.
MARCH 24, 2003
By Stephen B. Shepard, Editor-in-Chief
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Copyright 2003, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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