100 most transparent and trustworthy US companies

Forbes and MSCI ESG Research have released the 2015 edition of their annual ‘100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America’ list. Among the 100 leading companies are four companies with a perfect score, and two active in the consulting industry: Sapient and Resources Global Professionals.

Since 2007, MSCI ESG Research and Forbes have joined forces to create the ‘100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America’ list*. To create this list, MSCI ESG Research screened more than 5,500 publicly-traded North American companies using a rating system called AGR (Accounting and Governance Risk) to identify the 100 that most consistently demonstrated transparent accounting practices and solid corporate governance. Factors considered include high risk behaviours like regulatory actions, amended filings, revenue and expense recognition methods, and bankruptcy risk. Companies were scored on a one to 100-point scale, with lower values representing greater risks. The 100 companies with the strongest AGRs—“Aggressive Accounting and Governance Risk”— have been included in the ranking.

The list of 100 companies is sorted into three groups: large cap (market caps of $5 billion or more), mid cap ($1 billion to $5 billion) and small cap ($250 million to $1 billion). Of the 100 companies listed here, 40 have appeared on our Most Trustworthy list at least once in the past three years, and 10 companies have appeared at least twice.

Among large cap companies, automotive supplier Magna International comes in first, with an AGR of 99 (Magna is headquartered in Canada, but qualifies for this list as a North American company that trades on the NYSE). With a score of 96 Quanta Services comes in second, followed by National Fuel Gas Co (AGR of 94) and PepsiCo (93).

This year, four companies garner AGR scores of 100: Con-way, Equity Lifestyle Properties, Stepan Company, and Tower International. Con-way and Equity Lifestyle Properties tie for first among mid cap companies, while Stepan Company and Tower International share the lead among small caps.

Among the mid cap leaders is also Sapient, a marketing and consulting company that provides business, marketing, and technology services to clients. The company operates three divisions, SapientNitro, Sapient Global Markets and Sapient Government Services. Sapient was founded in 1990 and currently has revenues of over $1.3 billion and a market cap of roughly $3.5 billion.

In the small cap segment, top-performers Stepan Company and Tower International are followed by Comfort Systems USA and Kimball International, both with an AGR score of 99, and Vascular Solutions and Sabine Royalty Trust, both gaining a 98 score. Among the thirty companies is Resources Global Professionals, a global professional services firm with 2,900 professionals in offices in 22 countries, including 26 international offices and 47 offices in the United States. "We are proud to be selected as one of Forbes' 100 Most Trustworthy Companies," says Tony Cherbak, Chief Executive Officer of RGP. "This recognition says a lot about our Company and our guiding principle of always doing the right thing."

* The ‘100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America’ list was not published in 2011.