The most resilient companies in the world are not necessarily those with the fastest growth or the largest workforce, they are those who have strategically manipulated activities that maximize efficiency.
New research by Bestbrokers that analyze 1,189 companies with market capitalization of more than $ 10 billion reveals which industries and individual companies reach the highest operational margins in 2025.
The findings are challenging conventional wisdom about the profitability of companies. While Big Tech dominates the headlines, Bestbrokers’ analysis shows that port activities lead all industries with an average operational margin of 38.5%, followed by finances and investments at 33.6%and rail operations at 30.1%. In the meantime, the broader technological sector is reporting a surprising average operational margin of -5.76%, dragged down due to heavy spending for AI, infrastructure and growth initiatives.
“Whether it is now Babcock International on a belly of the defense spending to raise its operational margin to 8%, whether Meta generates a profit of 201% after reducing 21,000 jobs and the double-infrastructure, one message is clear: operational efficiency has become the determining economy, according to the metriciek of the metriciek,” “” “” “” “” “” “” ” Best breakers.
The efficiency champions
At the top of the Bestbrokers ranking is in Sweden in Sweden Industivarden with an extraordinary operational margin of 99.57%. The investment company achieves this through a business model aimed at dividends and capital profits of portfolio companies, with minimal operating costs in relation to the turnover.
The dominance of the port activity sector stems from its unique economy. Companies such as International Container Terminal Services (53.4%) and Adani Ports & Sez (51.9%) make huge investments in infrastructure in advance, but enjoy minimal marginal costs per shipment once they are operational. Limited competition in these markets also supports premium prices.
Railway activities follow comparable patterns, with the Canadian national railway 39.8% margins and Union Pacific Corporation achieves with 36.2%. These companies benefit from enormous investments in infrastructure that create natural entry thresholds while retaining low -current operational costs.
Bestbrokers’ research shows that financial companies also reach significant margins, on average 33.64% in the sector. Dubai Islamic Bank is an example of this with an operational margin of 74.38%, which benefit from income flows based on reimbursements that bear very low marginal costs. Banks generally profit by borrowing at low interest rates and loans at higher rates, creating natural operational leverage.
Tech sector: A story about two extremes
The technology sector presents the most complex findings of Bestbrokers. While the industry is on average -5.76% margins as a result of aggressive editions by AI, Saas and Biotech companies at an early stage, striking artists demonstrate the potential of the sector.
PT DCI Indonesia leads technology companies with 54.6% margins, benefit from low operating costs and steady income from data center contracts in the growing market of Southeast Asia. The Keyence of Japan maintains 52.2% margins through an asset light model Het zero inventory and outsourcing all production while focusing on solutions with high margins.
Applovin reaches 37.5% margins by using automation and AI for its mobile advertising platform, using algorithms to optimize AD placements and earn gaming inventory. Tech giants Microsoft (43.8%) and Meta (44.4%) retain the margins above 40%via software with high margins, cloud services and advertising companies that scales efficiently as soon as the infrastructure has been determined.
On the other hand, MicroSstratey reports an operational margin of -1,668.47%, largely because of the Bitcoin acquisition strategy for several billions. Nebius Group, the Dutch AI and cloud infrastructure company that splits out of the Russian technology giant Yandex, shows -335.31% margins because it invests heavily in the expansion of the infrastructure in the midst of rising interest rates and stricter investment conditions.
Automotive industry: luxury victories, EVS struggle
The car analysis of Bestbrokers reveals grim divisions within the industry. With 28.7% Marges-Bijna Double Toyota’s second place, Ferrari dominates 15.4%-by only producing 13,752 vehicles in 2024 with premium prices and limited production volumes. This contrasts sharply with the sector average of 4.8%.
The efficiency of Toyota stems from production scale and supply chain management in a diverse vehicle portfolio, including trucks, sedans, hybrids and plug-in hybrids. This broad approach helps the Japanese car maker to maintain resilience in the midst of legal changes and the volatility of the supply chain.
Startups for electric vehicles face the opposite challenge. Rivian reports -70.3% margins, struggle with considerable prior costs, production challenges and disturbances of the supply chain. Chinese EV -Maker Xpeng shows -10.26% margins as intense competition from NIO, BYD and Tesla forces heavy investments in marketing and technological progress.
Geographical performance patterns
The analysis of the country per country of Bestbrokers reveals interesting regional patterns. Kuwait leads with 61.8% average margins, followed by Greece with 60.2% and the VAE with 54.7%. However, these countries have relatively few large CAP companies (1-8 companies each more than $ 10 billion), which means that their averages are less representative.
In Asia-Pacific, South Korea is an average of 30.6%, Australia 28.31%and Japan 17.7%. European highlights include Austria (29.8%), Denmark (25.3%) and Belgium (22.4%), while larger economies such as Germany (7.9%) and France (16.4%) show more moderate averages, probably a reflective challenges of green transitional policy and rising labor costs.
Surprisingly, the United States is on average only 0.2% despite the fact that they have more than 431 companies with market hoods above $ 10 billion. The Netherlands has 3.00% margins for 20 large companies in the same way. BestBrokers attributes these low averages to high concentrations of capital -intensive, fast -growing technical startups and growth patch companies that still invest a lot in expansion.
Efficiency necessary
Bestbrokers’ research shows that sector differences in operational margin strategic considerations reflect between growth versus profitability, automation versus labor and scale versus localization. Companies that reach the highest margins usually fall into categories with natural benefits: infrastructure-heavy companies with high entry thresholds, financial companies with operational leverage, luxury brands with price power or technology companies with asset light, scalable models.
The analysis suggests that as economic pressure is intensive, the operational efficiency will continue to separate winners from losers in all industries. Companies that control the balance between strategic investments and operational discipline positions for sustainable profitability in an ever -increasing environment.
This analysis was based on research carried out by Bestbrokers who use data from Companiesmarketcap, Yahoo Finance and Jika.io, with three -month data for Q2, Q3 and Q4 of 2024 and Q1 of 2025. The full data set and detailed company ranking are available on Bestbrokers.com.
Download the full report here
Stay informed of our stories LinkedIn” Twitter” Facebook And Instagram.
#profitable #companies #Tech