Jacksonville's publicly traded companies generally produced strong returns for their shareholders in fiscal 2012, but the 19 companies recorded a mixed bag of earnings and very little revenue growth.
With most public companies required to file their annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of March, the final results for 2012 are in for all but one Jacksonville-based company. Stein Mart Inc., which is in the process of resolving accounting issues, has not yet filed its report.
The results show a handful of local companies generated strong increases in earnings and revenue in their last fiscal year.
International Baler Corp., a relatively small company that produces balers used for recycling, had the biggest increase in adjusted earnings per share, at 77 percent. The Northside company also had a strong 61 percent jump in revenue.
However, the other leaders in earnings and revenue growth benefited largely from acquisitions, rather than internal growth.
Web.com Group Inc. had the biggest increase in revenue, at 105 percent, but that was due to its merger with competitor Network Solutions late in 2011. The merger also helped Web.com's adjusted earnings, which rose 51 percent.
Fidelity National Financial Inc.'s adjusted earnings rose by 61 percent, largely on the strength of its main business, title insurance. But its 49 percent increase in revenue is mainly due to its majority investments in several restaurant chains and auto parts company Remy International Inc., which were incorporated into its overall results.
Three other companies produced
double-digit percentage gains in adjusted earnings per share, but six companies had net losses.
The adjusted earnings per share reflect earnings excluding one-time gains or losses, which is the metric financial analysts use to evaluate companies.
For Jacksonville-based companies that are covered by Wall Street analysts, the adjusted earnings in the chart are the figures reported by Thomson Financial, which tracks data from analyst reports.
For companies not covered by analysts, the earnings data comes from their annual reports.
Besides Web.com, International Baler and Fidelity National Financial, the only other Jacksonville-based company with a large gain in revenue was EverBank Financial Corp. at 25 percent.
EverBank's revenue growth also benefited from acquisitions last year, as it bought MetLife Bank's warehouse finance business and General Electric Capital Corp.'s Business Property Lending Inc. unit.
The other 15 Jacksonville-based companies produced revenue gains of 6 percent or less in fiscal 2012.
While earnings and revenue gains were not as impressive, 13 of the companies produced shareholder returns of 20 percent or more in their last fiscal year.
The shareholder return measures the increase or decrease in stock price during the fiscal year, plus cash dividends paid out during the year.
The fiscal year for these companies does not necessarily line up with the calendar year. For example, Patriot Transportation Holding Inc.'s fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, and Stein Mart's fiscal 2012 ended on Feb. 2, 2013.
American Restaurant Concepts Inc.'s stock tripled in value in 2012, but that represents an increase in price from only 3 cents a share to 9 cents during the year.
The company, which is the franchisor for the Dick's Wings restaurant chain, trades in the over-the-counter market.
ParkerVision Inc.'s stock more than doubled in price in 2012, but it was trading below $1 at the end of 2011.
Among more conventionally priced stocks, the biggest return was a 66 percent gain by Lender Processing Services Inc.
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Companies ranked by their total revenue in their last fiscal year
| 2012 revenue in thousands | Change from 2011 | |
| CSX | $11,756,000 | 0% |
| Fidelity National Financial | $7,201,700 | 49% |
| Fidelity National Information | $5,807,600 | 3% |
| Landstar System | $2,793,420 | 5% |
| Lender Processing Services | $1,997,651 | 1% |
| Rayonier | $1,571,000 | 6% |
| Stein Mart | $1,213,900 | 5% |
| EverBank Financial | $1,025,328 | 25% |
| Regency Centers | $496,920 | 1% |
| Web.com Group | $407,646 | 105% |
| Body Central | $310,958 | 5% |
| Fortegra Financial | $291,646 | 4% |
| Patriot Transportation | $127,514 | 6% |
| Atlantic Coast Financial | $43,601 | -12% |
| Global Axcess | $31,194 | -2% |
| Jacksonville Bancorp | $27,755 | -14% |
| International Baler | $17,820 | 61% |
| Amer. Restaurant Concepts | $451 | 4% |
| ParkerVision | $0 | 0% |
Companies ranked by adjusted earnings per share growth in their last fiscal year
| 2012 EPS | Change from 2011 | |
| International Baler | $0.23 | 77% |
| Fidelity National Financial | $2.68 | 61% |
| Web.com Group | $1.59 | 51% |
| Patriot Transportation | $0.93 | 24% |
| Landstar System | $2.77 | 16% |
| Fidelity National Information | $2.50 | 13% |
| CSX | $1.76 | 5% |
| Lender Processing Services | $2.80 | 4% |
| Rayonier | $2.17 | 3% |
| Fortegra Financial | $0.82 | 2% |
| Body Central | $0.75 | -40% |
| EverBank Financial | $1.27 | NM |
| Amer. Restaurant Concepts | -$0.01 | NM |
| Regency Centers | -$0.08 | NM |
| ParkerVision | -$0.27 | NM |
| Global Axcess | -$0.53 | NM |
| Atlantic Coast Financial | -$2.67 | NM |
| Jacksonville Bancorp | -$7.31 | NM |
Stein Mart Inc. has not yet reported its fiscal 2012 results.