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 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 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.
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.
After Gateway, Lake Forest disk drive maker Western Digital was the highest ranking in the second group at No. 525. The company saw a 20% rise in 2005 sales to $3.6 billion.
Last year, Western Digital ranked No. 562.
Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp. jumped up 11 spots from No. 664 a year ago to No. 653 this time around.
Broadcom saw an 11% gain in sales to $2.7 billion.
That helped to push the chipmaker ahead of Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc., which ranked No. 700, down from No. 661 a year ago.
Beckman, which makes medical diagnostic equipment and supplies, didn’t keep pace with a 1.5% sales increase to $2.4 billion.
One of the biggest jumps came at Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp., which rose from No. 841 a year ago to No. 701 this year.
The subprime mortgage lender saw a 41% sales gain to $2.4 billion.
Rounding out the bottom of the Fortune 1000: No. 734 Irvine-based Allergan Inc., up from No. 744 a year ago; No. 850 Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes Inc., down from No. 809 a year ago; No. 863 Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc., which debuted on the list; and No. 979 Lake Forest-based Apria Healthcare Group Inc.
Quiksilver, the largest maker of surfwear, just missed the Fortune 1000 cutoff last year. A 40% rise in yearly sales to $1.8 billion put the company on the list this year.
Los Angeles County counts 13 Fortune 500 companies on this year’s list, up from nine last year.
No. 7 Walt Disney Co. is L.A.’s top company on the list.
San Diego County counts three companies on the list: No. 197 Sempra Energy, No. 285 Science Applications International Corp. and No. 381 Qualcomm Inc.
