Sixteen Minnesota companies make Fortune 500 list

UnitedHealth Group is again the fifth largest public company in the U.S. if ranked by revenue.

The latest edition of the Fortune 500 list ranking the largest public U.S. companies was out Monday with 16 Minnesota companies included. That's down from 18 companies last year.

Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth trailed only Walmart, Amazon, Apple and CVS Health.

The state has four companies listed among the top 100: UnitedHealth, Target, Best Buy and CHS. That's unchanged from last year except that 3M dropped a few spots to fall out of the top 100 while CHS gained enough ground to make the cut.

Besides the companies traded on stock markets, the Fortune 500 also includes companies such as cooperatives or fraternal benefits organizations, which means CHS, Land O'Lakes and Thrivent Financial are included.

Minnesota had 18 companies on last year's list because both Winona-based Fastenal Co. and Mendota Heights-based Patterson Cos. broke into the lower rankings.

But this year those two companies again dropped below the threshold. The state had 16 companies on the list two years ago.

Myles Shaver, a professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, has studied historical trends of Minnesota rankings in the Fortune 500.

Shaver said that the latest rankings show no big changes for state companies.

"The fact that companies move around a little bit, that's no big deal," said Shaver. "We've been through two years where, depending on the sector that you're in, there have been huge revenue swings."

That's clear among companies that stayed on the Fortune 500 list, but dropped in the rankings. Ecolab dropped 56 spots, U.S. Bancorp fell 37 spaces and General Mills lost 32 places in the rankings. On the other hand, C.H. Robinson gained 37 spots.

When compiling its list, Fortune actually ranks the top 1,000 U.S. companies. On the larger list, Bloomington-based Bright Health Group is a newcomer to the list ranking 688th. Minnesota has 11 companies that rank between the 501st and 1,000th spots.