Oklahoma's top publicly traded companies tilt toward energy

Ranking methods

For more than 15 years, The Oklahoman, with the help of S&P Capital IQ, has ranked the state's publicly traded companies using a system aimed at evaluating profitable growth.

Companies are ranked on three measures, and those with the best composite score rise to the top.

To measure growth, S&P ranked each company according to how quickly its revenues grew in the year ending June 30.

Syntroleum Corp. was the top company in that category with a 189 percent increase over the 12-month period.

To gauge profitability, each company was ranked according to its percentage change in earnings per share over the period. SandRidge Energy Inc. topped that category with a 2,066 percent gain.

Finally, each company was ranked according to its change in share price, including dividends, over the period.

By that measure, Orchids Paper Products generated the best reward for its shareholders.

Typically, it's tough for any one company to excel in all three rankings, which helps weed out firms that get a rankings boost in a category by rebounding from a tough year.

We take the rankings and average them to produce our overall list.

Continental Resources, with its strong rankings in two categories and above-average rank in the third, took the top spot with an average of 6.0.

Williams Cos. Inc., which ranked fifth in revenue growth and earnings growth, finished with the second-highest average at 9.3. Orchids, the overall winner in total shareholder return, was third-best overall with an average of 10.7.

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