United Fire makes Forbes ‘most trustworthy’ list

Forbes magazine recently named United Fire & Casualty Co. one of the most trustworthy publicly-traded companies in America.

Forbes, in partnership with Audit Integrity, a Los Angeles-based independent research firm, identified publicly-traded companies with prudent management and sound financials, making them most worthy of investors' trust. Cedar Rapids-based United Fire & Casualty has appeared on the list for 24 of the last 36 months.

James Kaplan, chairman and co-founder of Audit Integrity, said the set of standards used to judge the companies is extremely rigorous. Less than 5 percent of the companies with stock traded on the U.S. stock market qualify for the list.

Other Iowa-based companies making the Forbes list were Ankeny-based Casey's General Stores, Flexsteel Industries of Dubuque and Heartland Financial USA of Dubuque.

Kaplan points out that many of the companies on the list have maintained their high standard for quite some time.

“Approximately 130 of these companies have been persistently trustworthy, making our list for more than five straight years,” Kaplan said. ”These companies take their shareholders seriously.”

Audit Integrity uses data from company income statements and balance sheets, along with more than 100 qualitative factors, to assess the soundness of corporate accounting and management practices. Each company is assigned an accounting and governance risk rating.

In order to qualify, companies must have “average” or “conservative” ratings and average accounting and governance risk scores of 65 or higher over at least eight quarters. There must not have been any Securities & Exchange Commission enforcement action, class action litigation, financial restatements or accounting issues during the past year.

The qualifying orgnization also must have a negligible risk of bankruptcy and a relatively low proportion of incentive-based pay for its chief executive and chief financial officer.