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nnumber cruncher

What are we looking for?

Cash is king – or is it? Corporate America has come under fire for hoarding its cash and failing to do its part to spur growth by investing and hiring. So how well are the top cash-hoarders of the S&P 500 doing?

More about today's screen

The chart lists the 25 members of the S&P 500 index who have $10-billion (U.S.) or more of cash on hand. The data is drawn from Bloomberg, which defines cash as cash in vaults and deposits in banks. This includes short-term investments with maturities of less than 90 days. The definition excludes restricted cash, which is often cash that cannot be immediately repatriated.

The screen also shows annual percentage growth for revenue and income.

What we found

Together, these 25 companies are harbouring $720-billion. Markets do not seem to be rewarding the majority of them for their big bank accounts. Granted, financial institutions comprise a significant portion of the list, having been forced to raise their capital ratios, and their stocks are suffering due to broad economic problems. But Ford, Oracle, HP and Google have also underperformed the broader market this year (at least before Thursday's global selloff).

In addition, we see that a lot of the companies listed here are sitting on their cash at a price: slim growth. They may be boasting bigger profits, but that likely comes from cost-cutting. They can't brag about growing revenues if they don't invest in their futures.

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