Podcast: The Most Ethical US Companies

Ethical & Sustainable Investing News to Profit By!

The Most Ethical US Companies includes coverage of the following articles: “22 Most Ethical Companies in the US,” by Habib Ur Rehman at Insider Monkey; “Top 15 Infrastructure Companies in the US,” by Ty Haqqi, also at Insider Monkey; and “Caterpillar Leads 5 Stocks To See Infrastructure Spending Boost,” by Harrison Miller. Plus much more

Transcript & Links, Episode 96, December 16, 2022

Hello, Ron Robins here. Welcome to my podcast episode 96 published on December 16, 2022, titled “The Most Ethical US Companies” — and presented by Investing for the Soul. Investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investing mentoring, news, commentary, information, and resources.

Remember that you can find a full transcript, and links to content – including stock symbols and bonus material – on this episode’s podcast page located at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts.

Now if any terms are unfamiliar to you, simply Google them.

Also, a reminder. I do not evaluate any of the stocks or funds mentioned in these podcasts, nor do I receive any compensation from anyone covered in these podcasts. Furthermore, I will reveal to you any personal investments I have in the investments mentioned herein.

Additionally, quotes about individual companies are brief so that I can get as many companies covered as possible in the time allowed. Please go to this podcast's webpage for links to the actual articles where you’ll find much more great company information. Also, note several companies are covered more than once and there are also six article links below that time didn’t allow me to review them here.

Also, I’m taking some time off over the holidays, so my next episode of this podcast will be Friday, January 13, 2023!

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The Most Ethical US Companies

The first article I’m covering today is titled 22 Most Ethical Companies in the US. It’s by Habib Ur Rehman at Insider Monkey and found on yahoo.com. Mr. Rehman describes how they arrived at choosing these companies and then offers commentary on each one.

“For our list of the 22 most ethical companies in the US, we’ve ranked them based on how many times they’ve been hailed as honorees for being ethical up until 2022 by Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in assessing ethical businesses.

We’ve also mentioned each company’s ESG-risk scores from Sustainalytics, a premier ESG grader… It assigns quantitative risk scores between 0 and 50 to corporations… and classifies them into any of… five risk categories: Negligible (0-10) Low (10-20), Medium (20-30), High (30-40), and Severe (40-50).

22. V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC)

Ethisphere Honoree: 6 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 12.9

21. Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK)

Ethisphere Honoree: 7 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 19.4

Oshkosh Corporation is a… machinery company that manufactures military vehicles, fire apparatus and truck bodies among others.

20. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Ethisphere Honoree: 7 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 17

19. The Allstate Corporation (NYSE:ALL)

Ethisphere Honoree: 8 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 19.1

The Allstate Corporation is one of the biggest insurance companies in the United States.

18. Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY)

Ethisphere Honoree: 8 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 14.2

17. CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE)

Ethisphere Honoree: 9 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 6.9

CBRE is a… commercial real-estate investment company based in Dallas, Texas.

16. Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL)

Ethisphere Honoree: 10 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 16.5

15. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ethisphere Honoree: 10 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 15.6

14. Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC)

Ethisphere Honoree: 11 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 13.5

Henry Schein is a… multinational supplier of healthcare products and services.

13. Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS)

Ethisphere Honoree: 11 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 7.1

12. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)

Ethisphere Honoree: 12 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 17

11. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Ethisphere Honoree: 12 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 15.2

10. ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE:MAN)

Ethisphere Honoree: 13 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 10

ManpowerGroup is… the third largest staffing company in the world.

9. Teradata Corporation (NYSE:TDC)

Ethisphere Honoree: 13 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 17.4

Teradata Corporation is a… software corporation that provides analytics software.

8. Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Ethisphere Honoree: 13 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 16.8

7. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Ethisphere Honoree: 13 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 13.2

Salesforce is a major… software company based in San Francisco, California.

6. Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE:ROK)

Ethisphere Honoree: 14 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 17.7

5. Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ:PINC)

Ethisphere Honoree: 15 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 19.9

Premier is a… healthcare company.

4. Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI)

Ethisphere Honoree: 15 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 19.4

Cummins is a… machinery company.

3. Deere & Company (NYSE:DE)

Ethisphere Honoree: 15 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 16.6

2. Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Ethisphere Honoree: 16 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 16.9

1. Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE:JLL)

Ethisphere Honoree: 15 Times / ESG-Risk Score: 6.8

Jones Lang LaSalle… has provided its Science-Based-Target-initiative (SBTi) aligned to the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement.” End quotes.

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Top 15 Infrastructure Companies in the US

Here’s another analyst from Insider Monkey, Ty Haqqi, with his analysis titled Top 15 Infrastructure Companies in the US. Also, on yahoo.com. Again, the writer explains how they picked these companies. He then follows with brief outlines of each company. All market caps are as of December 3, 2022, and dollar numbers are millions of dollars. I start at #13 due to duplication of data for #’s 14 and 15.

“The top infrastructure companies in the U.S. are giants of the industry… To determine these companies, we have considered their market cap, revenue, profit and assets, assigning 30% weightage to the first three criteria and 10% to the last one.

13. Construction Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROAD)

Total market cap: $1,559

Total assets: $4,809

Construction Partners is one of the fastest-growing civil infrastructure companies.

12. Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Total market cap: $1,770

Total profits: $124

Uniti Group is involved in the acquisition as well as construction of infrastructure pertaining to critical communication.

11. SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC)

Total market cap: $31,877

Total profits: $238

SBA Communications is one of several real estate investment trusts which owns and also operates wireless infrastructure.

10. Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Total market cap: $60,700

Total profits: $1,158

Crown Castle is a real estate investment trust and also provides shared communication infrastructure.

9. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NASDAQ:PAA)

Total market cap: $8,548

Total profits: $593

Plains All American Pipeline is engaged in pipeline transport.

8. Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Total market cap: $52,157

Total profits: $1,318

Sempra is an energy infrastructure company.

7. Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI)

Total market cap: $42,707

Total profits: $1,784

Kinder Morgan is the biggest energy company in the U.S.

6. Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC)

Total market cap: $58,821

Total profits: $3,005

Norfolk Southern operates more than 19,000 miles (of railways) in 22 states in the Eastern side of the U.S. and Norfolk Southern Corporation is also responsible for the maintenance of 28,400 miles.

5. American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT)

Total market cap: $102,140

Total profits: $2,568

American Tower provides wireless and broadcast communications infrastructure in the United States and several other countries worldwide.

4. CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX)

Total market cap: $67,382

Total profits: $3,781

CSX is one of the biggest railroad companies in the U.S.

3. Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP)

Total market cap: $132,016

Total profits: $6,523

Union Pacific is the biggest railroad company in the U.S. as well as among the top infrastructure companies in the U.S.

2. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Total market cap: $155,037

Total profits: $14,159

Comcast is one of the biggest conglomerates in the world and is the second largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world in terms of revenue.

1. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)

Total market cap: $135,556

Total profits: $20,081

AT&T (is) the largest telecom company in the world.” End quotes.

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Caterpillar Leads 5 Stocks To See Infrastructure Spending Boost

Continuing on the theme of infrastructure is this article Caterpillar Leads 5 Stocks To See Infrastructure Spending Boost, by Harrison Miller, found on investors.com’ Here are some quotes from Mr. Miller on each of his picks.

“All of the companies should see a boost from the recent infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act. The infrastructure spending plan… will dole out more than $500 billion for various projects. And the Inflation Reduction Act includes $369 billion to expedite mining projects and build out renewable energy infrastructure.

1. Caterpillar Stock (CAT)

The construction giant has rallied nearly 50% since bottoming in late September, and saw positive earnings and revenue growth the past two quarters.

2. United Rentals (URI)

Earnings growth for the world's largest equipment rental company fluctuated over the past seven quarters, averaging roughly 40% gains during that time.

3. Terex Stock (TEX)

Materials processor and machine maker Terex… earnings and revenue jumped 79% and 13%, respectively, for the most recent quarter after three periods of decelerating gains.

4. Deere Stock (DE)

Agriculture equipment manufacturer Deere’s… shares are way up after a big run going back to late September.

5. Martin Marietta Stock (MLM)

The building materials and concrete supplier shed 19% from its stock price so far this year, but started to recover at the beginning of the summer.” End quotes.

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3 Alternative Energy Stocks to Buy Amid U.S.-EU Trade Rift

Now back to our old familiar sector, alternative energy, with this article titled 3 Alternative Energy Stocks to Buy Amid U.S.-EU Trade Rift. It’s by Zacks analyst Aparajita Dutta. And found on sports.yahoo.com. (Note, some of you might have concerns about the designation of ‘alternative energy’ being applied to two of the stocks.)

Now some quotes from Ms. Dutta.

“The forerunners in the U.S. alternative energy industry are Texas Pacific Land, HF Sinclair and Clearway Energy.

1. HF Sinclair (DINO)

Based in Dallas, TX, this company is an energy company, which produces and markets light products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, renewable diesel and other specialty products…

HF Sinclair currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

2. Texas Pacific Land (TPL)

Based in Dallas, TX, Texas Pacific Land is one of the largest landowners in the State of Texas operating under two business segments: Land and Resource Management and Water Services and Operations…

Texas Pacific Land currently carries a Zacks Rank #1.

3. Clearway Energy (CWEN)

Based in San Francisco, CA, Clearway Energy owns, operates and acquires renewable and conventional generation and thermal infrastructure projects.” End quotes.

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Now some Other Honorable Mentions – no particular order

1) From Canada, Title: 3 Best-in-Class Stocks to Build Long-Term Wealth on fool.ca. By Robin Brown.

2) Title: 14 Best Environmental Stocks to Buy Now on yahoo.com. By Omer Farooq.

3) Title: 10 Most Responsible Retailers of 2023 on risnews.com. By Liz Dominguez.

4) Title: 8 Best Solar Power Stocks Of 2022 on forbes.com. By Cory Mitchell.

5) Title: 7 Best Socially Responsible Funds | Investing on money.usnews.com. By Jeff Reeves.

UK article

Title: Best ESG ETFs to Buy UK in 2022 on investingreviews.co.uk. By Antonia Medlicott.

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Ending Comment

Well, these are my top news stories with their stock and fund tips -- for this podcast: “The Most Ethical US Companies.”

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Contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you for listening.

Now I’m taking some time off over the holidays, so my next episode of this podcast will be Friday, January 13, 2023!

I wish you and your family and friends a most joyous, healthy, and fulfilling holiday period!

Bye for now.

© 2022 Ron Robins, Investing for the Soul