MW These U.S. companies might have the most at stake as other countries counter Trump's tariffs

By Philip van Doorn and Tomi Kilgore

There are many U.S.-based companies that derive most of their sales from overseas

MarketWatch readers have been asking a very good question in light of President Donald Trump's announcement of new tariffs on goods imported from dozens of countries: Which U.S. companies might be most affected by reciprocal tariffs or by other trade restrictions?

If only this were an easy question to answer.

Trump's 25% tariffs on imported cars illustrate how complicated a simple idea can be. These particular tariffs apply to cars whose final assembly is done outside the U.S. But even cars assembled within the U.S. are likely to have high percentages of parts made in other countries. And those parts are likely to be subject to Trump's tariffs.

One way to look at the question of which U.S. companies might be most affected if other countries respond to Trump's actions is to list companies based in the U.S. that have the highest percentages of revenue derived from customers in other countries.

A caveat to this approach is that we cannot tell if a U.S. company's revenue from overseas is sourced locally and not subject to tariffs or other trade restrictions. Then again, companies producing in local markets in other countries could still be affected by retaliatory moves by the other countries.

For example, Atlanta-based beverage giant Coca-Cola Co. $(KO)$ generated about 61% of its 2024 revenue outside of the U.S. That said, as Chief Executive James Quincey explained in the latest earnings call with analysts, import tariffs aren't really a problem, because the company mostly operates as a local business, by producing where it sells.

"The vast majority of everything that's consumed in the U.S. is made in the U.S.," Quincey said, according to an AlphaSense transcript. "Similarly, we've merged every country around the world. And so while it's a global business, it's very local."

Still, FactSet compiles geographical breakdowns of companies' revenue based on annual reports. Another caveat is that companies take different approaches in how they report revenue by geography.

Most U.S.-based companies in the S&P 500 SPX break out U.S. revenue. But some only report sales for North America including the U.S., while others report combined sales for the U.S. and Canada together, but not separately for those countries.

Among the companies in the S&P 500 index, 478 are headquartered in the U.S.

Since Trump has specifically targeted Mexico and Canada for high tariffs, we excluded companies from the list that didn't break out U.S. revenue. So the initial list for non-U.S. revenue breakdowns was reduced further to 446 companies. This means a company such as Nike Inc. $(NKE)$, which reports combined sales for North America but not for the U.S., was excluded from the list.

Among the 446 companies, these 20 had the highest percentages of revenue coming from outside the U.S. during their most recent full fiscal years, according to data compiled by FactSet:

   Company                              Ticker  Based in                % of annual sales coming from outside the U.S.Industry 
   Monolithic Power Systems Inc.        MPWR    Kirkland, Wash.                                                  97.5%Semiconductors 
   Lam Research Corp.                   LRCX    Fremont, Calif.                                                  92.6%Industrial Machinery 
   Booking Holdings Inc.                BKNG    Norwalk, Conn.                                                   89.5%Other Consumer Services 
   Teradyne Inc.                        TER     North Reading, Mass.                                             86.7%Electronic Production Equipment 
   Applied Materials Inc.               AMAT    Santa Clara, Calif.                                              86.0%Industrial Machinery 
   Schlumberger Ltd.                    SLB     Houston                                                          85.4%Contract Drilling 
   Newmont Corp.                        NEM     Denver                                                           84.7%Precious Metals 
   Albemarle Corp.                      ALB     Charlotte, N.C.                                                  83.2%Chemicals 
   Jabil Inc.                           JBL     St. Petersburg, Fla.                                             82.5%Industrial Machinery 
   ON Semiconductor Corp.               ON      Scottsdale, Ariz.                                                81.5%Semiconductors 
   Viatris Inc.                         VTRS    Canonsburg, Pa.                                                  76.7%Pharmaceuticals 
   Intel Corp.                          INTC    Santa Clara, Calif.                                              75.5%Semiconductors 
   Qualcomm Inc.                        QCOM    San Diego                                                        75.1%Semiconductors 
   Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. Class A       EL      New York City                                                    75.0%Household/ Personal Care 
   Broadcom Inc.                        AVGO    Palo Alto, Calif.                                                75.0%Semiconductors 
   Microchip Technology Inc.            MCHP    Chandler, Ariz.                                                  75.0%Semiconductors 
   Mondelez International Inc. Class A  MDLZ    Chicago                                                          74.0%Food 
   Baker Hughes Co. Class A             BKR     Houston                                                          73.5%Contract Drilling 
   Bunge Global SA                      BG      Chesterfield, Mo.                                                73.3%Agricultural Commodities/ Milling 
   Western Digital Corp.                WDC     San Jose, Calif.                                                 72.4%Computer Peripherals 
                                                                                                                                          Source: FactSet 

As noted above, a company might technically be based in the U.S. but book nearly all of its revenue from outside the country. An example is Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) of Kirkland, Wash., a semiconductor manufacturer that derives most of its revenue from customers in Asia. Since most of the company's products are also produced in Asia, it's uncertain how much of that revenue will be affected by other countries' responses to new U.S. tariffs.

Also read: China has announced retaliatory tariffs, and these stocks are getting hit the hardest

In case you are wondering, Apple Inc. $(AAPL)$ didn't make the list because only 36.4% of the iPhone maker's revenue for its most recent full fiscal year came from outside the U.S. And Nvidia Corp. $(NVDA)$ generated 53% of its revenue from overseas in its latest fiscal year, while 51% of Tesla Inc.'s $(TSLA)$ revenue was from outside the U.S.

Click on the tickers for more about each company.

Read: A detailed guide to the information available on the MarketWatch quote page

Don't miss: Trump Tariffs are rocking the markets, but investors are seeking refuge in these dividend stocks

-Philip van Doorn -Tomi Kilgore

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April 04, 2025 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)

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