Story first appeared in USA TODAY.
Non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, an index that includes the biggest companies in the world, are sitting on a record pile of $963 billion in cash.
Companies have this good problem to have, large cash balances, for several reasons. First, the string of robust corporate profit continues. Earnings are expected to rise by a double-digit percentage in the second quarter, extending six-straight quarters of double-digit growth. Meanwhile, companies are able to keep investment down as they are still using excess capacity. Meanwhile, employee productivity continues to rise.
Eventually, companies will either need to, or want to expand and invest in hiring and expansion. But for now, companies appear pleased to keep the cash flowing in and piling up on their balance sheets.
Some of the mounting cash piles are impressive. Below is a list of the non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 that have the largest cash balances. The list tallies the companies' cash, but also cash equivalents, which are financial instruments that can be turned into cash very quickly.
• General Electric: $82.2 billion
• Johnson & Johnson: $22.4 billion
• Oracle: $16.2 billion
• Apple: $16.0 billion
• Dell: $14.1 billion
