American Express is a global financial institution, operating in about 130 countries, that provides consumers and businesses charge and credit card payment products. The company operates a highly profitable merchant payment network. Since 2018, the company has operated in three segments: global consumer services, global commercial services, and global merchant and network services. In addition to payment products, the company's commercial business offers expense management tools, consulting services, and business loans.

BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, with $6.515 trillion in AUM at the end of March 2019. Product mix is fairly diverse, with 52% of the firm's managed assets in equity strategies, 12% in fixed income, 8% in multi-asset class, 7% in money market funds, and 2% in alternatives. Passive strategies account for around two thirds of long-term AUM, with the company's iShares ETF platform maintaining a leading market share domestically and on a global basis. Product distribution is weighted more toward institutional clients, which by our calculations account for just over 80% of total AUM. BlackRock is also geographically diverse, with clients in more than 100 countries and more than one third of managed assets coming from investors domiciled outside the United States and Canada.

Schlumberger Ltd is the world's largest supplier of products and services to the oil and gas industry. The company operates its business via multiple groups: Reservoir Characterization, Drilling, Production, and Cameron. The firm is investing more than any other services firm to make its offerings more bundled, which it believes is likely to be one of the key industry trends during the next 10 years. Its efforts on this front are most visible via its Schlumberger Production Management (SPM) business, which now accounts for 10% of its revenue.

Synchrony Financial, formerly GE Capital's retail finance business, is the largest provider of private-label credit cards in the United States based on purchase volume and receivables. Through its partners' 350,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada along with websites and mobile applications, Synchrony offers a variety of credit products through three sales platforms: retail card (private-label credit cards), payment solutions (consumer financing for major purchases), and CareCredit (financing for elective healthcare procedures).

State Street is a leading provider of financial services, including investment servicing, investment management, and investment research and trading. With over $31 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $2.5 trillion assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2018, State Street operates globally in more than 100 geographic markets and employs more than 40,000 worldwide.

Citizens Financial Group is a retail bank holding company operating primarily in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest regions of the United States. The bank operates through two segments: consumer and commercial banking. Citizens' strategy emphasizes differentiation through customer service. Net interest income is the largest source of the bank's net revenue. Most net interest income is derived from commercial loans, securities, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans, and residential mortgages. Some of CFG's higher-yielding products include credit cards, home equity loans, and other retail loans.

Regions Financial is a regional bank headquartered in Alabama, with branches primarily in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. Regions primarily provides traditional commercial and retail banking and also offers mortgage services, asset management, wealth management, securities brokerage, insurance, and trust services.

Kansas City Southern, the smallest Class I railroad, derives about half of its $2.7 billion revenue on 3,100 miles of track in the Central and Southern U.S. Remaining sales are produced by operating concessions on 3,200 miles of rail in Mexico and 47 miles of track adjacent to the Panama Canal. KCS' freight includes industrial and forest products (22% of total revenue), chemicals and petroleum (23%), agriculture and minerals (18%), intermodal (14%), energy (9%), and autos (9%); other revenue stems from switching, demurrage, and the like.

Autoliv is the global leader in safety components and systems for the auto industry. Products include seat belts, frontal air bags, side-impact air bags, air bag inflators, and steering wheels. Research and development is a vital part of the company's strategy, as Autoliv regularly spends about 5% of sales to maintain a competitive advantage.

Gentex was founded in 1974 to produce smoke-detection equipment. The company sold its first glare-control interior mirror in 1982 and its first model using electrochromic technology in 1987. Automotive revenue is about 98% of total revenue, and the company is constantly developing new applications for the technology to remain on top. Sales from 2018 totaled about $1.8 billion with 41.6 million mirrors shipped. The company is based in Zeeland, Michigan.