UP, UP AND AWAY: North Carolina stocks took part in the surging market, led by Coca-Cola Consolidated and Bandwidth.

• Author: Miller, Harrison
• Position: TOP 50 PUBLIC COMPANIES

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.

2 HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC.

Honeywell became the largest Fortune 500 company to move its headquarters to North Carolina when CEO Darius Adamczyk announced the shift in November. He'd been named CEO a year earlier, taking little time to leave higher-cost New Jersey, where the company had been based since Allied Signal Corp.'s purchase of Minnesota-based Honeywell in 1999. State and local incentives topping $80 million helped lure the company, which pledges to invest $248 million in Mecklenburg County and add 500 jobs to 250 existing ones. It plans to occupy 10 floors of a downtown Charlotte tower that will be completed in 2021.

13 ADVANCE AUTO PARTS INC.

Five years after acquiring Raleigh-based General Parts International Inc. for $2 billion, Advance Auto Parts moved its headquarters from Roanoke, Va., to the capital city last year. It is receiving $12 million in government incentives based on promises to add 435 jobs over five years. Jobs will be heavily focused on tech as the company bolsters its digital marketing and software staffs. Shares of Advance have increased about 20% over the last five years compared with a gain of more than 110% at rival AutoZone Inc.

16 SEALED AIR CORP.

Management turnover continued at packaged-materials manufacturer Sealed Air with Chief Financial Officer William Stiehl terminated "for cause" in June following a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the Bubble Wrap maker's accounting and financial reporting practices. Stiehl held the post since 2013. Sealed Air's top executives, CEO Ted Doheny and CFO James Sullivan, both previously worked for mining-equipment manufacturer Joy Global Inc., which was bought by Japan's Komatsu Ltd. in 2017. Doheny succeeded Jerome Peribere in 2018.

28 COMMSCOPE HOLDING CO.

CommScope's biggest acquisition, the $7.4 billion purchase of Atlanta-based Arris International Ltd. in 2018, hasn't impressed investors. The company's shares fell nearly 50%, despite the transaction that created a company with 1 annual sales of more than $11 billion. CommScope expects to reduce annual costs by $150 million within three years and be better positioned to negotiate with giant telecom companies.

29 COCA-COLA CONSOLIDATED INC.

Coca-Cola Consolidated posted the highest stock gain among N.C. public companies despite a net loss due to an accounting charge related to past acquisitions and higher interest expense. With 86% of its shares controlled by the Harrison family, the company's revenue has increased about 170% since 2014 as it acquired other Coke bottlers. Increased efficiency enabled the company to trim about 1,500 positions over the last two years. Greater government regulation of soft drinks may pose risks to the company, which gets about 20% of revenue from Walmart Inc. and The Kroger Co.

33 KONTOOR BRANDS INC.

VF Corp. CEO Steve Rendle split up the diversified apparel company, taking the company's faster-growing brands, including The North Face and Vans, as he moved the headquarters to Denver. While VF's market cap tops $34 billion, left behind is a Greensboro-based jeans manufacturer with a valuation of about $1.7 billion, as of early July. Kontoor is expected to post revenues of $2.5 billion this year, down from $2.7 billion a year earlier, reflecting sluggish sales of the company's Wrangler and Lee brands.

42 SPEEDWAY MOTORSPORTS INC.

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