Valero Energy
In the first quarter of 2014, did you generate $1 million for your employer? If not, you’d better stop reading this and get back to work if you want to keep up with the most productive workers in the U.S.
Eight non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500, including energy firms Valero Energy and Phillips 66 and health care company AmerisourceBergen, collected $1 million, on average, per every employee in the just completed first quarter, based on a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Capital IQ.
The analysis looks at revenue brought in during the first quarter relative to the number of total employees reported at the end of each company’s most recent fiscal year.
Energy companies dominate the list for grabbing productivity from employees. These companies generate large amounts of revenue from a relatively small number of employees since they rely so heavily on equipment designed to extract massive amounts of high-priced commodities.
Refiner Valero had the most productive workers in the first quarter. The company brought in $3.3 million in revenue, on average, for each employee on the payroll.
AmerisourceBergen was the only non-energy company to crack the $1 million per employee barrier in the first quarter. The drug distribution company pulled in $2.3 million, on average, for every worker.
The companies that generated $1 million or more from employees in the first quarter are:
| Company | Symbol | Q1 revenue per worker | Sector |
| Valero Energy | VLO | $3.4 million | Energy |
| Phillips 66 | PSX | $2.7 million | Energy |
| AmerisourceBergen | ABC | $2.3 million | Health care |
| ONEOK | OKE | $1.6 million | Energy |
| EOG Resources | EOG | $1.5 million | Energy |
| Tesoro | TSO | $1.4 million | Energy |
| ExxonMobil | XOM | $1.3 million | Energy |
| Marathon Oil | MRO | $1.0 million | Energy |
Source: S&P Capital IQ
Investors have been rewarding these highly productive companies. Shares of the eight companies are up 21% on average over the past 12 months, topping the S&P 500′s 13.1% gain during the same time. Clearly, the upswing in commodity prices and rally in energy stocks play a role, but investors are keenly aware of companies’ productivity.
Shares of companies with high productivity are being rewarded beyond the energy sector. Excluding energy, there are 10 companies that brought in $500,000 or more per employee in the first quarter. These companies hail from the health care, materials and technology sectors. And shares of these stocks, too, are beating the market, gaining 35.5% over the past 12 months on average.
Shares of these companies have rallied even more powerfully this year — especially following the conclusion of earnings season. The high revenue per employee companies, excluding financials and energy, are up nearly 8% this year on an equal-weighted basis, topping the 3.1% gain by the S&P 500.
Below are the non-financial and non-energy companies that generated the largest amount of revenue per employee in the first calendar quarter:
| Company | Symbol | Q1 revenue per worker ($) | Stock % ch. LTM |
| AmerisourceBergen | ABC | $2,276,472 | 29.4% |
| LyondellBasell | LYB | $837,218 | 49.1% |
| Gilead Sciences | GILD | $819,501 | 44.9% |
| Express Scripts | ESRX | $790,158 | 13.9% |
| Archer Daniels Midland | ADM | $665,466 | 26.4% |
| Cardinal Health | CAH | $637,708 | 40.5% |
| Integrys Energy | TEG | $598,384 | -6.7% |
| Netflix | NFLX | $583,949 | 64.7% |
| Apple | AAPL | $568,443 | 37.9% |
| McKesson | MCK | $534,188 | 54.8% |
Source: S&P Capital IQ
Larger companies are on a constant search to find ways to replace employees with technology. And Wall Street continues to reward such efforts.
Photo credit: Business Insider
Via USA Today
