North Carolina hit a home run in attracting the headquarters of some big public companies in the last year, but the Tar Heel state was also spurned by apparel industry giant VF Corp. Three new companies rank among the state’s 13 largest public concerns on Business North Carolina’s annual list: Honeywell International Inc., Dentsply Sirona Inc. and Advance Auto Parts Inc. But VF decamped for Denver, leaving behind a much smaller spinoff, Kontoor Brands Inc.
Two other companies — Bojangles’ Inc. and Triangle Capital Corp. — are no longer on the list after they were sold to private companies. Red Hat Inc. will not be listed in future rankings since its $34 billion sale to IBM was completed in July.
BB&T’ Corp.’s merger of equals with SunTrust Banks Inc., which created Truist, was given the green light by shareholders and is expected to be approved by regulators. The combined companies are likely to have a market value exceeding that of Duke Energy Corp., which ranked fourth on this year’s list.
Benefiting from the stock market’s surge in the first half of this year, 31 of the 50 companies posted stock-price gains for the 52 weeks ending June 30. Coca-Cola Consolidated Inc. posted the sharpest increase, 125%, followed by Bandwidth Inc.’s 98%. Durham-based Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc., which focuses on treatments for eye diseases, experienced the biggest decline, 56%. Hickory-based CommScope Holding Co. fell 46% after it completed a $7.4 billion acquisition. Wilmington-based Live Oak Bancshares Inc. dipped 43%, as small-business lending faltered.
Data for the charts was provided by Capital Investment Cos. of Raleigh.
