Orange County’s largest public companies posted a second straight year of sales gains in 2011, although declining profits took some of the luster out of the year for many of the region’s top businesses.
The 100 largest public companies based here saw combined 2011 revenue of $100.6 billion, up 7% from a year earlier, according to this week’s Business Journal list—the centerpiece of an issue dedicated to public companies (see List, page 12; related stories throughout issue).
The gain of nearly $6.5 billion in sales for the public companies on this week’s list follows a 16% jump last year’s list, which tracked 120 companies.
The list, which is compiled with the help of B. Riley & Co., ranks the largest public companies based here by sales for the most recent four quarters, with most reporting through Dec. 31.
About three-quarters of the companies on this year’s list—which combine to employ about 34,533 people in OC in total, up 4% from a year ago—saw year-over-year increases in sales.
Biggest Gain
The biggest jump in sales on a percentage basis last year was seen at Santa Ana-based AuraSound Inc., a maker of high-end speakers and other audio products, which saw sales increase more than 700% to $63.1 million.
The Bulletin Board-listed company moved its headquarters from Santa Fe Springs to an office on Red Hill Avenue early last year. It ranked No. 57 on this week’s list, and credits a mid-2010 acquisition of Hong Kong-based ASI Holdings Ltd., which makes components for home theater systems, for much of its gains over the past year.
“Our revenue and profit generation opportunities have dramatically improved,” following the stock and debt-driven deal with ASI Holdings, the company said in its latest quarterly report.
AuraSound earned about $2 million in net income last year and counts Irvine-based flat TV and accessories maker Vizio Inc. as a customer.
Irvine-based Spectrum Group International Inc. had the biggest dollar gain in sales last year, with revenues increasing by $1.8 billion, or 28%, to just less than $8.3 billion.
The Pink Sheets-traded company sells gold coins and bars, stamps and other collectables to banks and others that in turn resell them to investors. It ranks No. 3 on this year’s list despite having a market value of only about $70 million.
None of the other companies among the top 25 in this year’s list have a market value of less than $200 million.
Spectrum Group is one of 13 companies on this year’s list that reported more than $1 billion in annual sales last year.
Ten of those saw year-over-year sale increases, including Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., the world’s largest distributor of technology products and perennial No. 1 company on this list (see related story, page 1).
Ingram saw a 5% increase in revenue, to $36.3 billion, last year. Ingram’s size means that it’s annual revenue—rather than recessions, economic recoveries, or worldwide events—usually goes a long way to determining whether our list trends up or down every year. The company’s sales are roughly equal to the combined revenue totals of the next six companies on the list.
Without Ingram’s numbers the remaining 99 largest public companies based here saw revenue increase 8% last year, to $64.3 billion.
A second year of overall sales increases offers an indicator of a rebounding local economy, but companies here still have their work cut out for them on profits.
The 100 companies on this week’s list posted a combined 2011 net profit of just less than $3 billion, down more than 8% compared with the 120 companies listed a year earlier.
There are 41 companies on this year’s list that reported a net loss in 2011, including six of the top 20.
The 59 companies that turned a profit last year included 15—nearly a quarter of them—that saw a decline in net income from 2010 levels.
Six companies on the list each reported net income in excess of $100 million last year, while another four each reported a net loss of more than $100 million.
Three of those big losses were for area healthcare facility and service providers, an industry segment that felt the brunt of lowered Medicare reimbursement rates for their facilities, which were announced last summer.
Irvine-based Sun Healthcare Group Inc. (No. 8), Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. in Foothill Ranch (No. 15), and Newport Beach-based Alliance Healthcare Services Inc. (No. 28) posted a combined net loss of nearly $650 million last year.
The fourth company to lose more than $100 million was Aliso Viejo-based Smith Micro Software Inc. Smith ranked No. 60 on this week’s list despite posting a net loss of nearly $160 million.
The company, which makes software for cell phones and connecting mobile devices to wireless networks, took a $113 million impairment charge after seeing revenues fall nearly 56% to $57.8 million last year.
$1 Billion Club
The two companies on the list reporting the highest net income for the year also are OC’s two largest companies based on market value: chipmaker Broadcom Corp. and drug maker Allergan Inc. (see related story, page 1), both in Irvine.
No. 4 Broadcom, which counts a market value of nearly $21 billion, posted $927 million in net income for 2011, when its sales rose 8.4% to $7.4 billion.
No. 5 Allergan, which is valued at $29 billion, reported $934.5 million in net income last year, when sales rose 10.2% to $5.4 billion.
Broadcom and Allergan are among 17 companies on this year’s list with market values exceeding $1 billion. Of those, 11 saw their valuations increase over the past year.
The 100 companies on this year’s list have a combined market value of about $109 billion, a 4.6% increase from a year ago.
Thirty eight of the public companies on this week’s list are based in Irvine, the most of any city. Santa Ana is second with 15 companies, followed by Newport Beach with eight.
