Business trio shows strength in small numbers

Three Gulf Coast-based companies made Forbes magazine's list of the top 100 publicly traded companies with annual sales less than $1 billion.

Those companies are: Sarasota-based screw-in cartridges and hydraulic valve manufacturer Sun Hydraulics, ranked 44th; Naples-based payment processer ACI Worldwide, ranked 45th; and Seminole-based uniform design and manufacturing firm Superior Uniform Group, ranked 63rd. Frederick, Md.-based construction materials firm U.S. Silica Holdings was the No. 1 company on the list.

The rankings, according to Forbes, are based on earnings growth, sales growth and return on equity in the past 12 months and five years.

The five-year figures are weighted twice as heavy as the one-year figures, and stock performance against each company's peer group during the last year, through Oct. 1, was also a factor.

Companies on the list must have annual revenue between $5 million and $1 billion and a stock price of at least $5 a share.