Fine Print on Times 100

Here are some key points to keep in mind when reviewing The Times 100 section.

* Some companies appear at or near the top of various growth lists as much because their previous year’s numbers were so low as because their most recent year’s numbers were high.

* Some companies register their headquarters in one state in Securities and Exchange Commission filings but have most of their executive staff members in another state. We have relied upon the state designations in our primary source, Market Guide for Windows. (For more on Market Guide, see Page 4.)

* A total of 1,185 California-headquartered public companies were reviewed for this section. For the sales- and profit-growth tables, we considered 722 California-headquartered companies--the ones with at least $10 million in annual sales. The reason for the smaller number is that financial information can be sparse or misleading in very small companies.

Other qualifications are noted with the individual tables.

* Because fiscal years vary and results are reported quarterly, companies cannot be compared directly on their performances. Some companies “pre-announce” certain data, and thus only portions of the financial information for the most recent quarter may be available at any particular time.

* Data for this section were collected and analyzed by Market Guide Inc., a financial-information services firm in Lake Success, N.Y. Because Market Guide updates its data as quickly as possible, the four quarters of data used for tables in this section may end as late as March 31 in some cases.

Market Guide relies on its own databases and on corporate 10-Q and 10-K reports filed with the SEC, annual reports, surveys, news releases and other sources.

* Data are sometimes reported late or aren’t filed at all.

* Although numbers have been rounded and there may appear to be ties, rankings were based on the figure before rounding.

* For banks and savings and loans, “sales” means gross interest income. (Bank revenues are often measured in other ways.) For insurance companies, “sales” means the sum of earned premiums, realized gains or losses from investments and net investment income.

* Market Guide’s database does not go beyond 15 years. Thus, the maximum number of years that can appear in table columns labeled “years of positive earnings” will not exceed 15, no matter how old the company.