The depth of the economic recession has caused many
consumers to
save more and spend less, threatening a
potential recovery. What has some people more concerned,
however, is the fact that businesses have ramped up their
savings to historic proportions.
According to the
Wall Street Journal, cash holdings among the top 500
companies in the U.S. rose to nearly $1 trillion, even
excluding financial companies that routinely have huge cash
balance sheets. Throughout the economy in a wide range of
different sectors, you can find companies that are putting
cash aside at an impressive rate. Here's a sampling:
Company
Cash and Short-Term Investments, Most
Recent Quarter
Change in Cash and Short-Term Investments
Over Past 4 Quarters
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)
$22.0 billion
53%
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)
$20.6 billion
58%
WellPoint (NYSE: WLP)
$18.2 billion
237%
Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN)
$14.0 billion
44%
AT&T (NYSE: T)
$6.2 billion
287%
PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)
$3.5 billion
86% Continued... |