[NewsPoster]

Apple has risen from fifth place to third in Fortune's rankings of the top 500 corporations in the US, ending a two-year run at fifth place, and now trailing only Walmart and Exxon Mobil. This year, Apple move pushed Chevron and financial firm Berkshire Hathaway down to fourth and fifth. While Apple was out-earned by both Walmart ($482.1 billion) and Exxon ($246.2 billion), it remains the most profitable publicly-traded company in the world, with profits of $53.4 billion -- more than Walmart and Exxon's annual profits combined.

While Apple was receiving a mixed review but a move up in the eyes of US businesses, US financial paper Barron's has claimed that household products maker Johnson & Johnson -- rather than previous title holder Apple -- is now the newpaper's Most Respected Company. In the Barrons poll, Berkshire Hathaway moved up to second place, leaving Apple in third. A much bigger jump was accomplished by online retailer Amazon, which leapt from 17th place to fourth place in the ranking, with Nike (moving up from ninth place last year) rounding out the top five. Johnson & Johnson were in sixth place last year.

Fortune's rankings are primarily based on gross revenue, versus the subjective criteria of the Barron's poll. Other notable tech and tech-related companies on the Fortune rankings include Amazon, which was placed at 18th, with carriers AT&T at 10th place, and Verizon at 13th. Others included HP scraping into the top 20, Microsoft (25th), IBM at position 31, Alphabet rated 36th, Intel at 51st, Cisco Systems (54th), and Oracle in 77th place. In its profile on Apple, the magazine also pointed out an under-reported fact: in fiscal 2015, the company managed a nearly 28 percent increase in revenues year-over-year, on income of $233.7 billion.

"After more than a decade of solid growth fueled first by the iPod music player and then by the even more popular iPhone, Apple finally appeared to hit a wall," Fortune editors wrote. "Still the most profitable publicly-traded company in the world, Apple's iPhone 6S and 6S Plus upgrades barely outsold their predecessors after arriving on the market at the end of 2015, while sales of the iPad tablet computer continued to shrink throughout the year. In April 2015, the Apple Watch arrived to mixed reviews and modest sales."

The magazine went on to express worry about the slowing Chinese economy, but also noted hopes pinned to the next iPhone upgrade cycle, and the company's recent push into India, along with speculation about Apple's so-called car efforts, known as "Project Titan." Staffed with "hordes of former car industry experts," Fortune said, "Apple's effort to leapfrog the automobile market with an electric masterpiece likely won't reach consumers for a few more years. But when it does, Cook and company could be riding high again."

[iphonerulez]

There are always checks and balances about Apple. If one positive article lifts it, there will be two negative articles to drag it back down. Still the most profitable company in the world and still the most doomed company in the world. Apple is always in trouble for some reason or another. There's always a downside to every Apple upside. It's amazing the company has survived as long as it has. One would think Apple has all the traits of a financially solid and healthy company but the critics out there beg to differ. It would seem there are lots of companies that would topple long before Apple, but I guess no one really cares about those companies like they do Apple. By now, everyone should realize Apple is a company that will never hold high market share with its products but apparently market share is the only measure that Apple can be judged by. Low market share always equates to failure. A lull in Apple's growth isn't allowed even if the company is sitting on a couple of hundred billion dollars.