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- Facebook has a massive, $35.5 billion hoard of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. It's the third biggest S&P 500 company by this metric that is

- Facebook has a massive, $35.5 billion hoard of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. It's the third biggest S&P 500 company by this metric that isn't paying a dividend, after Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet. How many companies in total have more than $35.5B cash/equivalents? Including Apple, for example.

adventured 9y ago
Ignoring debt: Microsoft ($126b), Apple ($256b), Facebook ($35b), Berkshire Hathaway (near $100b), Cisco ($68b), Google ($92b), Oracle ($66b), Softbank (a lot), Amgen ($38b), Ford ($40b), Samsung ($73b), Johnson & Johnson ($39b), GE ($82b) There are a lot of financial entities and the like that have more cash than that of course. It's held under a different financial context than the cash that eg Apple is sitting on. JP Morgan for example has $650b, Citi has $422b, Bank of America has $643b, etc.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Thank you! Out of curiosity, how did you put together that list? Googling seems to only bring up second-hand lists like https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/22/big-money-the-companies-with-the-biggest-cash-piles-in-tech/ https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/22/big-money-the-comp... but I think I'm using the wrong terms. (That's an interesting list too -- for comparison, Apple apparently had $76.2B in 2011.)
  - protomyth 9y ago
    Apple is also running up quite the debt (over $100B) in the US so the overall figure is actually lower. http://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-plans-to-sell-lots-of-bonds-but-no-30-year-maturities-1493920673 http://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-plans-to-sell-lots-of-...
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      They do that because interest rates are low and much of their cash hasn't been repatriated (taxed) to the USA.
      - protomyth 9y ago
        Yes, but that doesn't really change the fact that their money in the bank needs to be considered partially encumbered.
  - adventured 9y ago
    I put most of it together off the top of my head, from knowing a bunch of the companies that were cash rich, then checked on a few I suspected were (like Samsung), and then finally cross checked a few lists for any stragglers I missed (eg Amgen). I dug through some of China's companies (eg BABA or CHL), but didn't run across any offhand that made the list (their banks obviously do as with US banks).
- mars4rp 9y ago
  Ford has $40b cash and its market cap is $43b ?? I should buy some. Edit: I guess I missed "Ignoring Debt" they have too much debt.
  - acalderaro 9y ago
    About $70Bn in short-term debt liabilities. [0] May create some hesitation in buying ;) [0] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/F/balance-sheet?p=F https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/F/balance-sheet?p=F
  - adventured 9y ago
    Maybe. Net tangible assets are $30 billion. Obviously much like GM, they're carrying a large pile of liabilities around on their balance sheet. I suspect Ford has to keep a significant amount of cash on hand for numerous legacy reasons (pensions?) to support their credit rating. $244b in assets stacked against $213b in liabilities. GM is far more profitable than Ford, has $22b in cash, and $39b in net tangible assets. With a $53b market cap, GM is sporting a realistic 4.x to 5.x PE ratio currently (depending on how you want to account for their 4Q16).
- austenallred 9y ago
  And to be fair, "ignoring debt" is kind of an odd way to measure something like "who is sitting on cash"
  - adventured 9y ago
    In any real scenario, debt should obviously never be ignored, but we're counting cash in a vacuum here basically. Some of these companies are carrying vast amounts of debt now, Microsoft and Apple for example. They can't discharge all of that cash without suffering severe consequences due to their need to sustain a high credit rating. I added the ignoring debt tag, because who knows which of those cash / cash-like instruments are being used in what way in relation to some of those immense debt piles.
    - acchow 9y ago
      > They can't discharge all of that cash without suffering severe consequences due to their need to sustain a high credit rating. What do you mean by this?
      - adventured 9y ago
        Microsoft for example has $76 billion in debt, accumulating at a rapid pace. Apple is in a similar situation. They're adding debt at a historic pace. Despite the immense profitability the companies have, their debt holders will get freaked out if those large cash piles were to get discharged down toward zero. For example, Berkshire Hathaway got slapped for allowing its cash to drop a bit low (relatively speaking) a number of years ago (also coincided with the worst of the great recession), their credit rating got dropped a notch in part because of it (despite it being very unrealistic they were actually more risky just because cash was briefly at $30 billion versus $50 billion). You'll often see the ratings agencies & analysts talk about wanting to see Berkshire maintain a large amount of cash due to its obligations. Apple and Microsoft are paying very, very low interest rates on their debt. Given the scale of those debt piles now, they'll desperately want to maintain those low rates. Maintaining a sizable pile of cash will assist them in doing so.
- lossolo 9y ago
  This is a problem, a lot of money that is not going back to the market. It's taken out of economy making it impossible to redistribute it again. It's not healthy.
  - allannienhuis 9y ago
    as I understand it, that cash is not sitting in actual bills under mattresses, it's sitting in bank accounts of some sort or other (could be short-term notes perhaps and still qualify as 'cash'). Those banks in turn invest those funds (in loans, etc) to other people and businesses. So the money isn't completely taken out of the economy - it stays in the system and is put to work (by other people). So I'm not sure how it's an actual problem for the economy.

adventured 9y ago

Ignoring debt: Microsoft ($126b), Apple ($256b), Facebook ($35b), Berkshire Hathaway (near $100b), Cisco ($68b), Google ($92b), Oracle ($66b), Softbank (a lot), Amgen ($38b), Ford ($40b), Samsung ($73b), Johnson & Johnson ($39b), GE ($82b) There are a lot of financial entities and the like that have more cash than that of course. It's held under a different financial context than the cash that eg Apple is sitting on. JP Morgan for example has $650b, Citi has $422b, Bank of America has $643b, etc.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Thank you! Out of curiosity, how did you put together that list? Googling seems to only bring up second-hand lists like https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/22/big-money-the-companies-with-the-biggest-cash-piles-in-tech/ https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/22/big-money-the-comp... but I think I'm using the wrong terms. (That's an interesting list too -- for comparison, Apple apparently had $76.2B in 2011.)
- protomyth 9y ago
  Apple is also running up quite the debt (over $100B) in the US so the overall figure is actually lower. http://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-plans-to-sell-lots-of-bonds-but-no-30-year-maturities-1493920673 http://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-plans-to-sell-lots-of-...
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    They do that because interest rates are low and much of their cash hasn't been repatriated (taxed) to the USA.
    - protomyth 9y ago
      Yes, but that doesn't really change the fact that their money in the bank needs to be considered partially encumbered.
- adventured 9y ago
  I put most of it together off the top of my head, from knowing a bunch of the companies that were cash rich, then checked on a few I suspected were (like Samsung), and then finally cross checked a few lists for any stragglers I missed (eg Amgen). I dug through some of China's companies (eg BABA or CHL), but didn't run across any offhand that made the list (their banks obviously do as with US banks).
mars4rp 9y ago
Ford has $40b cash and its market cap is $43b ?? I should buy some. Edit: I guess I missed "Ignoring Debt" they have too much debt.
- acalderaro 9y ago
  About $70Bn in short-term debt liabilities. [0] May create some hesitation in buying ;) [0] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/F/balance-sheet?p=F https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/F/balance-sheet?p=F
- adventured 9y ago
  Maybe. Net tangible assets are $30 billion. Obviously much like GM, they're carrying a large pile of liabilities around on their balance sheet. I suspect Ford has to keep a significant amount of cash on hand for numerous legacy reasons (pensions?) to support their credit rating. $244b in assets stacked against $213b in liabilities. GM is far more profitable than Ford, has $22b in cash, and $39b in net tangible assets. With a $53b market cap, GM is sporting a realistic 4.x to 5.x PE ratio currently (depending on how you want to account for their 4Q16).
austenallred 9y ago
And to be fair, "ignoring debt" is kind of an odd way to measure something like "who is sitting on cash"
- adventured 9y ago
  In any real scenario, debt should obviously never be ignored, but we're counting cash in a vacuum here basically. Some of these companies are carrying vast amounts of debt now, Microsoft and Apple for example. They can't discharge all of that cash without suffering severe consequences due to their need to sustain a high credit rating. I added the ignoring debt tag, because who knows which of those cash / cash-like instruments are being used in what way in relation to some of those immense debt piles.
  - acchow 9y ago
    > They can't discharge all of that cash without suffering severe consequences due to their need to sustain a high credit rating. What do you mean by this?
    - adventured 9y ago
      Microsoft for example has $76 billion in debt, accumulating at a rapid pace. Apple is in a similar situation. They're adding debt at a historic pace. Despite the immense profitability the companies have, their debt holders will get freaked out if those large cash piles were to get discharged down toward zero. For example, Berkshire Hathaway got slapped for allowing its cash to drop a bit low (relatively speaking) a number of years ago (also coincided with the worst of the great recession), their credit rating got dropped a notch in part because of it (despite it being very unrealistic they were actually more risky just because cash was briefly at $30 billion versus $50 billion). You'll often see the ratings agencies & analysts talk about wanting to see Berkshire maintain a large amount of cash due to its obligations. Apple and Microsoft are paying very, very low interest rates on their debt. Given the scale of those debt piles now, they'll desperately want to maintain those low rates. Maintaining a sizable pile of cash will assist them in doing so.
lossolo 9y ago
This is a problem, a lot of money that is not going back to the market. It's taken out of economy making it impossible to redistribute it again. It's not healthy.
- allannienhuis 9y ago
  as I understand it, that cash is not sitting in actual bills under mattresses, it's sitting in bank accounts of some sort or other (could be short-term notes perhaps and still qualify as 'cash'). Those banks in turn invest those funds (in loans, etc) to other people and businesses. So the money isn't completely taken out of the economy - it stays in the system and is put to work (by other people). So I'm not sure how it's an actual problem for the economy.