Revenue
Revenue is what a company billed its customers over the fiscal year, after returns and after the sales taxes it merely collects on a government's behalf. It is the top line — the scale of the business before any cost.
How it is computed here
| Formula | revenue as filed − sales taxes collected for a government (only where the filing still includes them) |
|---|---|
| Unit | Currency amount |
| Period | One fiscal year, as reported |
| Source | Extracted from SEC filings; every value on an asset page carries the accounting tag and the filing it came from |
| Identifier | receita |
What goes into the formula
| Revenue, as filed | The single figure the company reports as its top line. Where the statement splits products from services, this is their sum, as the company itself totals it. Nothing here is estimated or grossed up. |
|---|---|
| Sales taxes collected for a government | Excise and similar taxes a company collects from the buyer and hands to the state. Tobacco, drinks and energy companies collect enormous amounts of it. It is subtracted only when the accounting tag says the reported revenue still contains it — subtracting it from a figure that already excludes it once produced negative revenue for a profitable company here, which is why the rule reads the tag and not the industry. |
A formula without its inputs explained is decoration. Where an input is missing from a filing, the metric is left empty here rather than completed with a zero or an estimate.
How to calculate revenue, step by step
A tobacco company whose reported revenue still contains the excise tax it collects.
| Revenue, as filed | $25.0B |
|---|---|
| Excise tax collected for the state | $5.0B |
| Net income | $4.0B |
- Check the accounting tag. It says the reported figure INCLUDES the assessed tax, so the tax is part of the $25.0B.
- Revenue net of the tax = 25.0 − 5.0 = $20.0B.
- Every margin is then computed on the $20.0B, not the $25.0B: net margin = 4.0 ÷ 20.0 = 20.0%.
- Using the un-netted figure would have given 4.0 ÷ 25.0 = 16.0%.
Result: $20.0B of revenue, and a net margin four points higher than the naive computation
The $5.0B never belonged to the company for a moment — it passed from the smoker to the state through the till. Counting it as revenue understates the margin of every excise-heavy business by the same mechanical amount.
The figures in this example are illustrative and rounded — they are not a real company. The real figures on this site are the live ones below and on every asset page, each carrying the filing it came from.
What revenue is good for
Revenue is the denominator of every margin on this site and the first thing anyone looks at. It is also the figure least subject to judgement: what a company billed is closer to a fact than what it earned, which is why a revenue series that jumps usually means the business changed, not the accounting.
What this number does not tell you
Revenue says nothing about whether the business keeps any of it. A distributor can bill hundreds of billions and keep less than a cent per dollar. It also cannot be compared across currencies: a company reporting in yen shows a number seventy times larger than an American peer of the same size, which is why the rankings on this site are ordered inside one currency and never across. Scale and profitability are separate facts, and this site can show the gap. Of the 4,432 companies here reporting both revenue and a net margin in dollars, 65 billed more than ten billion dollars and kept less than one cent of every dollar. A revenue figure in the tens of billions places a company among the largest employers in the country and says nothing about whether it earns anything.
Every metric on this site is published with its blind spot stated. A figure without its limit is half a fact.
Highest reported revenue
| AMZNAMAZON COM INC | $716.9B |
|---|---|
| WMTWalmart Inc. | $706.4B |
| UNHUNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC | $447.6B |
| AAPLApple Inc. | $416.2B |
| MCKMCKESSON CORP | $403.4B |
| GOOGAlphabet Inc. | $402.8B |
| GOOGLAlphabet Inc. | $402.8B |
| CVSCVS HEALTH Corp | $402.1B |
From the most recent fiscal year of each company. Only companies reporting in US dollars are ranked here — a figure in yen or won is not larger, it is in another currency.
See it in a published filing
These pages show the figure across up to nineteen fiscal years, with the accounting tag and the filing behind every value.