Apple jumps to #6 in latest Fortune 500 rankings

You wouldn’t know it by reading through the latest tech news headlines, but Apple is on track to have another stellar year. It’s already recorded two record-breaking quarters, and it has yet to launch a new or refreshed product.

But not everyone is ignoring Apple’s success. Fortune magazine on Monday released its annual Fortune 500 list of America's top companies, as ranked by revenue, with Apple jumping 11 places from last year to pass giants in the automotive, healthcare and banking industries.

Apple is bigger than ever -- the company cracked the Fortune 10 this year. But it’s a high-pressure job, being king of the hill. At Apple's press event this past October, it maintained more than disrupted with its software upgrades and iPad mini announcement. Also, this past year has seen a lot of CEO Tim Cook having to apologize -- once in September for the failure of Apple’s maps app, and then to Chinese consumers this April for slow repair services -- this in a market that Cook said this past January would be Apple's largest. Still, when every executive wants to invent the iPod of ___, Apple remains an innovation icon.

Wal-Mart edged out ExxonMobil for the top spot in this year's rankings, with Chevron, Phillips 66, and Berkshire Hathaway also ranking ahead of Apple and its $156.2 billion in revenue. In looking at profits, Apple ranked second among Fortune 500 companies at $41.7 billion, trailing only ExxonMobil at $44.9 billion.

Elmer-DeWitt notes that the rankings reflect Apple's booming fiscal 2012, at the end of which AAPL stock prices dropped precipitously. During Apple's quarterly conference call for the second quarter of 2013, the company announced reduced margins led to its first year-over-year decline in profits in a decade, but still managed to beat Wall Street estimates on revenues of $43.6 billion.

Apple is on track for another strong performance this year, having reached $22.6 billion in profit on sales of $98.1 billion in the first half of the year. That compares to earnings of $24.7 billion on $85.5 billion in revenue for the first half of fiscal 2012.

Reference: Apple Leaps to #6 in Latest Fortune 500 Rankings

Apple leapfrogs titans of industry to land No. 6 spot on Fortune 500