Notes to "Biggest U.S. corporations: Still hoarding cash"
The first entries below are from the main article that accompanied the data viz. Additional details are then provided below that.
Remapping Debate examined quartely SEC filing data for the period closest to June 30th in 2014, 2013, 2012, 2006, and 2000. For 13 companies, data was not available for all five years.
All figures have been inflation-adjusted to 2014 dollars.
Important wrinkle in respect to Caterpillar, Kroger, Target, and Valero: in one or more years, one or more of these companies did not disaggregate their CCE amount from their short-term investment amount. In each such case, we attributed all of the non-differentiated amount to CCE (thereby likely overstating CCE and understating short-term investments). In each affected year, short-term investments are listed as “not available” (and are reflected on the pie chart as an undifferentiated portion of CCE). For the short-term investment sorts, affected companies are listed at the bottom. For CCE sorts, however, the affected companies are listed as they would be if all CCE and short-term investment were properly attributed to CCE, thereby potentially skewing the rankings. This issue has no impact on the rankings for CCE and short-term investments combined.
Additional detail: companies with incomplete data:
Aetna – No data for 2000. Aetna sold its financial services and international businesses to ING in 2000 and spun off its health business as an independent publicly held company.
Amerisourcebergen – No data for 2000. Amerisourcebergen was created by the merger of Bergen Brunswig with AmeriSource in 2001.
ConocoPhillips – No data for 2000. ConocoPhillips was created by the merger of Conco Inc. with Phillips Petroleum Company in 2002.
Energy Transfer Equity LP – No data for 2006 or 2000. In 2012 the petroleum giant, Sunoco, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Transfer.
Google – No data for 2000. Google’s initial public offering was held August 19, 2004.
INTL FCStone – No data for 2006 or 2000. INTL FCStone, a financial services firm specializing in commodity trading, is the result of a 2009 merger between the International Assets Advisory Corporation and FCStone Group Inc.
Marathon Petroleum – No data for 2006 or 2000. Marathon Petroleum was formed as a subsidiary in 2005 and spun off from Marathon Oil in 2011.
Merck – No data for 2006 or 2000. Merck merged with competing pharmaceutical firm Schering-Plough in 2009.
Mondelez – No data for 2012, 2006, or 2000. In 2012 Kraft Foods Inc. spun off its North American grocery business into a conglomorate called Kraft Food Group Inc. It subsequently renamed itself Mondelez.
Phillips 66 – No data for 2006 or 2000. In 2012 ConocoPhillips spun off its downstream assets–that is any oil and gas operations that happen after the production phase, such as refining and distribution–into Phillips 66.
Plains GP Holdings – No data for 2012, 2006, or 2000. Plains GP Holdings, which owns a significant portion of the oil pipeline company Plains All American, had it’s initial public offering in October 2013.
Sears – No data for 2000. Sears was purchased by and merged with Kmart Holdings Corporation in 2005.
Twenty-First Century Fox – No data for 2012, 2006, or 2000. In 2013 News Corp. split itself into two entities. Twenty-First Century Fox primarily inherited film and television outlets while News Corp took over publishing operations.
United Continental – No data for 2006 and 2000. In May 2010 United Airlines merged with Continental Airlines.
WellPoint – No data for 2000. WellPoint as it currently exists was created by the merger of WellPoint Health Networks, Inc. with Anthem, Inc. in 2004.
Additional detail: companies that did not disaggregate CCE from short-term investment in one or more years:
Caterpillar, Kroger, and Valero included short-term investments in calculating their cash and cash equivalents disclosure from 2000-2014. A separate short-term investments figure is unavailable. Target included short-term investments in calculating its cash and cash equivalents disclosure from 2012-2014. In 2000 and 2006 it did not report any short-term investments either as part of cash and cash equivalents or separately.