6% of Companies Make 50% of US Profit

As corporate earnings were shrinking in 2015, an elite group of U.S. companies found a way to grab a bigger piece of the smaller-profit pie.

Just 28 firms in the Standard & Poor's 500 -- including gadget-maker Apple, bank JPMorgan Chase

and Warren Buffett's diversified Berkshire Hathaway -- collectively hauled in more than half the total net income reported by U.S-based companies in the stock index last year, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The analysis includes 462 U.S.-based companies that have reported their net income for calendar year 2015.

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