Foreign Sales by U.S. Companies Tick-down in 2010; 46.3% of All Sales Were Derived Outside of the States

NEW YORK, July 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P 500 companies with full reporting information posted 46.3% of their sales from outside of the United States in 2010, down slightly from the 46.6% posted in 2009 and significantly below the 47.9% recorded in 2008, according to research published today by S&P Indices. The data is derived from the 255 companies within the S&P 500 that have full reporting information.  

“While the percentage of foreign sales posted a slight tick-downward in 2010, we believe that multiple changes in currency, membership and contracts negate any strong implication to the second yearly drop,” adds Howard Silverblatt, S&P Indices' Senior Index Analyst and author of the report. "Looking at these results on a proforma basis, foreign sales ticked-up for the year, a direction we feel will continue as non-U.S. growth outpaces U.S. domestic growth."

According to the report, sales to European countries rebounded to 29.1% in 2010 from 25.6% in 2009. Sales to Asian countries decreased to 13.1% from the 17.6% posted in 2009.

On a country by country basis, while Canada was again the primary recipient of S&P 500 foreign sales, it is continuing to fall out of favor. Only 4.1% of declared sales came from Canada in 2010 down from the 7.4% reported in 2009 and the 9.3% reported in 2008. At 3.13%, Great Britain was the second choice destination for foreign sales of the S&P 500 companies in 2010.

Looking at sectors, Information Technology continues to dominate with over 56% of its declared sales coming from outside of the United States; the sector now represents 22.4% of all U.S. foreign sales.

S&P Indices also determined that total income taxes paid to foreign entities increased 27.7% to $117.3 billion in 2010 from $91.9 billion in 2009. In comparison, S&P 500 companies paid $101.7 billion in domestic incomes taxes in 2010, a 9.7% increase over the $92.7 billion paid in 2009.

"In 2010, S&P 500 issues paid more income tax to foreign countries than to Washington," notes S&P's Silverblatt. "Only 46.4% of all income taxes paid by U.S. companies went to Washington in 2010 versus 53.6% paid abroad. Apparently, jobs weren't the only major export in 2010."

The full report, S&P 500: 2010 Global Sales, can be accessed by going to www.indexresearch.standardandpoors.com.

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