2017's Top Public Companies In America: Forbes

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is number one on Forbes' inaugural list of America's top public companies, and many of the companies in which Berkshire has a stake ranked among the top on the list.

Berkshire is the largest U.S. company as measured by Forbes' methodology, which weighs revenue, profit, assets and market value equally. "Weighing these four metrics equally helps account for nuances in the myriad ways that investors value a company," according to Forbes.

Of the 45 holdings that make up Berkshire's portfolio, 32 of them made Forbes' list.

While the rankings released by Forbes in May are an inaugural list, the magazine drew some comparisons with the Forbes' Global 2000 list, which ranks the public companies across the world.

Forbes notes that Goldman Sachs, Disney and Oracle broke into the top 25 when compared with their comparative position on the global list. Another trend pointed out by Forbes is the relative stability of tech companies over the past year, potentially because of decreasing investor optimism or fears of a Silicon Valley bubble, the magazine notes.

In the oil and gas industry, turbulent oil prices "yanked" these companies throughout the year.

Companies across 38 states and the District of Columbia are represented on the list.

The top American public companies in 2017 are:

• Berkshire Hathaway (1)
• Apple (2)
• JPMorgan Chase (3)
• Wells Fargo (4)
• AT&T (5)
• Bank of America (5)
• ExxonMobil (7)
• General Electric (8)
• Wal-Mart Stores (9)
• Microsoft (10)

Click here to see the full Forbes list.

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