Most Respected Mortgage Companies

WMC parent General Electric took the gold in Barron’s inaugural list of The Corporate World’s Most, and Least, Respected.

The magazine said the ranking was based on a survey it issued to 3,000 investors who were asked to respond whether they respect highly, respect, respect somewhat or don’t respect each of the 100 largest companies in the world by market capitalization. A mean score was tabulated from point values assigned for each response, including no answer. A total of 94 investors returned a completed survey.

Survey respondents also listed the criteria they used in determining how much or how little they respect companies, and it was reportedly found that investors overwhelmingly cited strong management and business strategy as the two most important criteria for ranking corporations on the list.

GE had he highest average score amongst the 100 most capitalized companies and, by a wide margin, the largest proportion — 63% — of investors saying that they “highly respect” the company.

Wells Fargo took up spot No. 18. with 43% of investors saying they “respect” the lender, compared to 26% marking the “respect highly” selection.

American Express placed 23rd with most of the responses — 48% — for its company indicating that investors “respect” it.

HSBC Holdings took 46th place with responses being mostly divided up between “respect” (49%) and “respect somewhat” (38%).

On the halfway mark of the list at No. 50 was U.S. Bancorp, with a majority, or 48%, of responses indicating “respect somewhat.”

U.S. Bancorp said in an announcement that, among U.S. companies, it was ranked as the second most respected. Noting Barron’s statement that “it doesn’t show up on balance sheets or earnings statements, but the respect paid to corporations–or the lack thereof–can translate into returns for their investors,” the Minnesota-based lender added that it had recently appeared in Fortune magazine as the second best company in the world when it comes to return on revenue.

The second half of Barron’s list began with Wachovia at No. 51, followed by ABN AMRO in the 59th slot, and Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup respectively in spots 61 to 63, and Credit Suisse at No. 69, directly followed by JPMorgan Chase.

Way down near the bottom of the list, a placement suggesting they were the least-respected corporations, were Morgan Stanley at No. 95; Freddie Mac at No. 99 with the highest proportion, 50%, of investors saying they “respect somewhat” the company.

The last position belonged to Fannie Mae with the biggest share — half — of investors marking “don’t respect.” Fannie reportedly manages a $2.3 trillion book of business.