February 1, 2011 - Coca-Cola has over $13 billion in cash.

The top 5 companies (according to Market Cap) are:

Exxon Mobil (XOM) $398.3 billion
Apple (APPL) $309.0 billion
Microsoft (MSFT) $237.5 billion
General Electric (GE) $215.0 billion
Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) $202.5 billion

(Market Cap is the number of shares times the price of the stock.)

These companies are buying back their shares:

Intel Corp. (INTC) $10 billion worth
Fidelity national Financial (FNF) 10 million shares
Yum! Brands (YUM) $750 million worth over 18 months
Altria (MO) $ 1 billion
AstraZeneca (AZN) $ 4 billion
Ball Corp. (BLL) 20 million shares
J. M. Smucker (SJM) 5 million shares
Coach (COH) $1.5 billion

These stocks are splitting:

Ball Corp. 2 for 1 Pay date: 2/15 (BLL)
Potash 3 for 1 Pay date: 2/24 (POT)
Eaton Corp. 2 for 1 Pay date: 3/1 (ETN)
Hormel Foods 2 for 1 Pay date: 2/14

These stocks are merging or being acquired:

Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) to buy Massey Energy (MEE) for $7.1 billion
AMB Property (AMB) to merge with ProLogis (PLD) in a stock swap valued at $8.4 billion.
Amgen (AMGN) to buy BioVex for up to $1 billion in cash.
Rock-Tenn (RKT) to acquire Smurfit-Stone (SSCC) for cash and stock valued at $3.5 billion.
Duke Energy (DUK) to buy Progress Energy (PRG) for $13.7 billion.
DuPont (DD) to acquire Danisco for $5.8 billion in cash.
Qualcomm (QCOM) to buy Atheros (ATHR) for $5.8 billion in cash.

That China is the largest car market. In 2010, total sales were 18.3 million units. Total U.S. sales were 11.588 million units (light vehicles), up 11.1% over 2009.

That all of these data points were taken from The Online Investor, except for the car markets.

- Ted Allrich