Lost Money, Still on Top: St. Louis Companies Ranked by Revenue
Revised October 22, 2026
What companies are HQ in St. Louis?
Fortune lists St. Louis as the headquarters of Centene, Emerson and Graybar. Ameren and Stifel are headquartered in St. Louis too. Post Holdings and Core & Main are headquartered in St. Louis as well. Reinsurance Group of America is in Chesterfield, World Wide Technology in Maryland Heights and Olin in Clayton. Bunge is incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland, but Fortune says its operational headquarters is in St. Louis, Missouri.
Keep reading ↓Three careers pages, three browser tabs, and a laptop fan whirring like it wants out of the room. Every page promises a “global leader.” None of them says how big the place really is. So you guess: the brewery, maybe, or the Edward Jones branch you pass on the way to the grocery store.
Guess again. The company at the top of this list is a health insurer most St. Louisans only ever meet as a plastic card in a wallet. Fortune lists Centene with its headquarters in St. Louis and revenues of $194,777 million. That’s about $194.8 billion. Then read the next line on the same profile: profits of negative $6,674 million. The company on top lost money.
Big in dollars, or big in people? Which ones are private, which one is owned by the people who work there, and which famous “St. Louis” name is legally Swiss? When you’re the one about to hit submit, those stop being trivia questions.
So here are the ten, ranked by the revenue on each company’s own Fortune profile, with the headcount, the headquarters town and one move to make on each before you apply.
What companies are HQ in St. Louis?
The box above has the roll call. What it can’t show is how far apart the front doors are: Fortune files RGA under Chesterfield and World Wide Technology under Maryland Heights, and it puts Edward Jones in a third suburb. Same metro, very different drives.
Before you apply: the three numbers to bring
A big name on the letterhead doesn’t pay your rent. Before you walk into any of these ten buildings, flip open the notepad in your bag and write down three numbers.
The first is your floor. MIT’s Living Wage Calculator puts the living wage for one adult with no children at $20.04 an hour in St. Louis city and $22.11 in St. Louis County. Multiply an hourly offer by 2,080, the full-time hours MIT uses. Thumb on the phone calculator in the parking lot, you know in ten seconds whether the job clears the line, before anyone across a desk has finished the pitch.
The second is a phone number: (314) 589-8000, the SLATE job center at 1520 Market St., 3rd Floor. SLATE says its training programs help St. Louisans who are minorities, women, and long-term unemployed enter careers in growing industries, and that it conducts frequent hiring events for jobseekers to meet and talk with prospective employers. Save it in your phone before you need it, then call and ask what’s coming up.
The third is the drive. Put each headquarters town into your map app on a weekday morning, with the coffee still too hot to drink, and watch what color the line turns.
The ten biggest, by the money
1. Centene: about $194.8 billion
The phone line you call when a prescription gets denied. The enrollment letter on the kitchen table in November. The clinic waiting room with the TV on mute. That is the business. Fortune calls Centene the largest Medicaid managed-care organization in the U.S. as of 2026, counts 61,100 employees, and notes it also operates its own health care and dental clinics and pharmacies, so the jobs run well past insurance desks. Your move: open the careers section at centene.com and filter to Missouri first.
2. Bunge: about $70.3 billion
Start in a soybean field, the pods rattling dry on the stalk. Follow the beans and you end up in the oil that goes into food processing, the meal in a feed bin, even biofuels. That whole chain is Bunge’s business: it sources, processes and trades oilseeds and grains. Here’s the Swiss part. Fortune says Bunge Global is incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland, with its operational headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, and lists revenues of $70,329 million and 34,000 employees. Your move: search the jobs at bunge.com for St. Louis, where the operational headquarters sits.
3. Reinsurance Group of America: about $23.7 billion
No storefront, no logo-wrapped truck, nothing you can hold in your hand. Reinsurance is insurance for insurers, as the American Council of Life Insurers puts it, and Fortune calls RGA one of the largest global providers of life and health-related reinsurance. It puts the headquarters in Chesterfield, Mo., with revenues of $23,698 million and 4,300 employees. Do the math: that’s a lot of revenue for 4,300 people, and it tells a job seeker what kind of seat this is. Analysts, underwriters, quiet floors and big spreadsheets. Your move: look for the Chesterfield openings at rgare.com.
4. World Wide Technology: about $20 billion
Even the address is a tagline: 1 World Wide Way. WWT lists its Americas global headquarters there, in Maryland Heights, and says that, headquartered in St. Louis, it has nearly 5 million square feet of warehousing, distribution and integration space around the world. That’s the part of “tech” people don’t picture: warehouse and integration floor. Fortune lists WWT as a private company with revenues of $20,000 million and 9,399 employees. WWT says its global headquarters is located in Maryland Heights’ Westport Plaza, seven stories tall and 208,000 square feet. For anyone in IT, that’s the reason “St. Louis tech job” is a real search. Your move: search Maryland Heights on the careers pages at wwt.com.
5. Emerson: about $18 billion
Somewhere right now a sensor is reading a pipe in a plant you will never walk through. That is Emerson’s side of the economy. Fortune lists Emerson with its headquarters in St. Louis, revenues of $18,016 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025, and 71,000 employees. It makes automation systems, sensors and software for industries including energy, manufacturing and utilities, and Fortune says it was founded in 1890. You’ve probably never bought anything from Emerson, and that’s the point: it sells to the plants and utilities, not to you. Your move: on emerson.com, filter its careers listings to St. Louis.
6. Edward Jones: about $17.9 billion
Drive past the branch office on the way to the grocery store and you’ve met the whole business model. Fortune lists Edward Jones as a private partnership with revenues of $17,897 million and 55,000 employees. Its more than 19,000 financial advisors serve more than 8 million clients, according to Fortune, which counts nearly 16,000 branch locations throughout North America. Your move: before you open edwardjones.com, decide whether you want a seat at headquarters or a desk as one of those advisors.
7. Graybar: about $12.9 billion
The share-it-at-dinner fact on this list: Fortune says Graybar Electric is employee owned. It lists Graybar as private, headquartered in St. Louis, with revenues of $12,876 million and 10,000 employees. It distributes electrical, communications and data networking products, the wiring, lighting and networking gear that contractors load onto a truck. Founded in 1869, according to Fortune. Your move: check graybar.com for St. Louis openings, and ask in the interview what employee ownership means for your paycheck.
8. Ameren: about $8.5 billion
The furnace clicks on in February, the house ticks as it warms, and a few weeks later the bill on the counter is thicker. That’s the one you pay every month. Fortune lists Ameren with its headquarters in St. Louis, revenues of $8,470 million and 8,913 employees. It serves about 2.5 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers across Illinois and Missouri. Your move: start at ameren.com and look for the careers link.
9. Post Holdings: about $8.2 billion
Open the pantry. Fortune says Post Holdings’ products include Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, Peter Pan peanut butter and Simply Potatoes potato products. It lists Post’s headquarters in St. Louis, revenues of $8,158 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025, and 13,180 employees. Fortune also notes Post made the Fortune 500 for the first time in 2025. Your move: search St. Louis on the careers pages at postholdings.com.
10. Core & Main: about $7.6 billion
Think about what runs under the street and behind the drywall: the water line, the storm drain, the fire sprinkler pipe. Core & Main supplies water, wastewater, storm drainage and fire protection products to municipalities, private water companies and professional contractors. Fortune lists it in St. Louis with revenues of $7,647 million for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2026, and 5,600 employees, filed under diversified wholesalers. Just behind it on revenue: Olin in Clayton at $6,781 million and Stifel in St. Louis at $6,348 million. Your move: if you know water and wastewater work, coreandmain.com is the careers page to read first.
Who is the biggest employer in St. Louis?
Look past revenue to people. BJC Health, which isn’t on the list above, says it includes more than 48,000 employees, 24 hospitals, and hundreds of clinics and service organizations across two brands: BJC HealthCare in the St. Louis region and Saint Luke’s in the Kansas City region. BJC Health says it expanded to include Saint Luke’s on Jan. 1, 2024, and you can read the hospital system’s own announcement of the BJC and Saint Luke’s combination.
Here’s the catch with every headcount on this page: the Fortune numbers count employees company-wide, not just in St. Louis. Fortune says Emerson operates in over 170 countries, so its 71,000 are not all sitting in St. Louis. We could not find a current official count of local-only jobs for each company, so treat the headcounts as a measure of size, not as a count of St. Louis openings. The careers page is where that answer lives.
Hunting a seat at one of these ten? Pick the two that match your field, bookmark their careers pages tonight, and check the St. Louis jobs board for the local companies that sell to them, because the suppliers hire too.
If you run the caterer, the cleaning crew or the IT shop that serves these campuses, list your business so more customers in Clayton, Chesterfield and Maryland Heights can pick you before they pick up the phone.
How to use this list if you want a job here
Read it twice, once for money and once for people. Revenue tells you who can afford big projects. Headcount tells you who hires at volume. RGA brings in $23,698 million with 4,300 employees. Edward Jones brings in $17,897 million with 55,000. Those are two completely different job hunts.
Then match the company to your field instead of chasing the logo:
- Health care and insurance: Centene for managed care, RGA for reinsurance, and BJC for hospital work.
- Finance: Edward Jones and its more than 19,000 financial advisors, plus Stifel.
- Technology: World Wide Technology in Maryland Heights, and the software side of Emerson.
- Trades, logistics and distribution: Graybar and Core & Main, where the product moves on trucks.
- Food and agriculture: Bunge and Post Holdings.
- Utilities: Ameren, across Missouri and Illinois.
Our guide to the best jobs near St. Louis covers the career paths in more depth, and if you’re aiming at the corporate marketing seats inside these headquarters, start with the St. Louis marketing jobs guide.
And don’t skip the companies around the companies. Every headquarters on this list buys lunch, cleaning, wiring, printing and software from somebody local. Those smaller firms hire too, and the person who answers their phone is often the person who decides. The giant’s careers page is one door. The vendor parked out front is another.
Why the list keeps surprising people
Because the famous names and the big names aren’t the same names. The one on top of the ranking lost money. The one with 71,000 employees makes things you’ll never see. Graybar is owned by its employees. Bunge is legally Swiss. And one of the largest employers in Missouri, by BJC’s own account, doesn’t sell a product at all. It runs hospitals.
Next time someone says St. Louis is a small market, you have the receipts: a $194.8 billion insurer, a $70.3 billion agribusiness and a $20 billion private tech company, all with St. Louis-area headquarters on Fortune’s own pages.
Lunch near the headquarters crowd: where to eat in Clayton.
Want the regional view and more of the companies behind these numbers? Start here:
- Greater St. Louis, Inc. on the region’s Fortune 1000 companies
- Which St. Louis jobs pay a living wage
- St Louis Near Me Directory for the local businesses around these campuses
Frequently Asked Questions
What Fortune 500 companies are in St. Louis?
Fortune’s company profiles list St. Louis-area headquarters for Centene, Emerson, Edward Jones and Graybar, among others. For the current Fortune 500 order, check Fortune’s full list.
Who is the biggest employer in St. Louis?
By people, look at BJC Health, which says it has more than 48,000 employees and 24 hospitals across BJC HealthCare in the St. Louis region and Saint Luke’s in Kansas City. Among the companies above, Emerson lists 71,000 employees company-wide, more than Centene’s 61,100.
What are the largest private companies in St. Louis?
On Fortune’s profiles, World Wide Technology is private with revenues of $20,000 million, Edward Jones is a private partnership with $17,897 million, and Graybar is private and employee owned with $12,876 million.
What are the major industries in St. Louis, Missouri?
On this list, Centene is a health insurer, Reinsurance Group of America is a reinsurer and Bunge is an agribusiness and food company. Edward Jones works in securities and World Wide Technology in IT services. Emerson makes industrial machinery and Graybar wholesales electrical products. Ameren is a gas and electric utility.
What are the highest paying jobs in St. Louis?
By job family, MIT’s Living Wage Calculator page for St. Louis city lists legal work at $118,150 a year and management at $111,750, then architecture and engineering at $91,900, healthcare practitioners and technical work at $91,660, and computer and mathematical work at $90,910.
Which St. Louis company has the most employees?
On Fortune’s profiles, Emerson lists 71,000 employees company-wide, Centene 61,100 and Edward Jones 55,000. Remember that those are company-wide counts, not St. Louis jobs. For local work, BJC Health, which says it is one of the largest employers in Missouri, runs hospitals rather than selling a product, so a job seeker in health care should start there and at Centene, then work outward to the suppliers that serve them both.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.