Orange County’s contingent on Fortune magazine’s annual ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies saw some twists and turns but ultimately ended up a little lighter this year.
The county counts five companies among this year’s Fortune 500, down from six last year.
One of the companies in this year’s group, Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp., is set to move to Las Colinas near Dallas this month.
Fortune already counts Fluor as being based in the Lone Star state.
The county saw two companies fall from the Fortune 500.
Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., last year’s No. 172, was bought by Minnesota’s UnitedHealth Group Inc. in December.
Irvine PC maker Gateway Inc. missed the cutoff for this year’s group, coming in at No. 508, down from No. 495 last year.
Gateway, which returned to profitability last year but still is struggling to win more sales to businesses and directly to consumers, saw sales rise 6% to $3.8 billion last year.
The gain wasn’t enough to keep pace with faster-growing companies on the Fortune 500.
One of those was Irvine’s Standard Pacific Corp., which debuted on the Fortune 500 at No. 493, up from No. 519 on last year’s broader Fortune 1000 list.
Standard Pacific, a homebuilder, saw a 20% rise in 2005 sales to $4 billion.
Topping the OC group again this year is Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., a technology products distributor that is the county’s largest company by sales.
Ingram Micro ranks No. 72 on this year’s Fortune 500, up from No. 76 last year.
The company saw a 13% rise in 2005 sales to $29 billion. Ingram Micro is the ninth largest California company on the list.
Santa Ana-based title insurer First American Corp. was next at No. 284, up from No. 309 last year. The gain reversed a slump in the ranking a year ago, when First American dropped nine spots from 2004.
First American saw a 20% rise in 2005 sales to $8 billion.
Private Entry
Newport Beach-based life insurer Pacific Life Insurance Co. ranked No. 441, down from No. 395 a year ago.
Fortune includes Pacific Life, OC’s largest private company, because the insurer reports financial results for its policyholders, who own the company.
Pacific Life saw a slight decline in 2005 revenue, which was down 2% to $4.8 billion.
Including Gateway, OC counts nine entries in the second group of 500 companies that make up the Fortune 1000.
Last year, OC counted 10 companies in the second group. Irvine’s Westcorp, the Irvine-based parent of Western Financial Bank, last year’s No. 971, recently was bought by Wachovia Corp.
