The world’s most resilient companies aren’t necessarily those with the fastest growth or biggest headcount, they’re the ones running strategically engineered operations that maximize efficiency.
New research from BestBrokers analysing 1,189 companies with market caps exceeding $10 billion reveals which industries and individual companies are achieving the highest operating margins in 2025.
The findings challenge conventional wisdom about corporate profitability. While Big Tech dominates headlines, BestBrokers’ analysis shows that Port Operations leads all industries with an average operating margin of 38.5%, followed by Finances & Investments at 33.6% and Railway Operations at 30.1%. Meanwhile, the broader technology sector reports a surprising average operating margin of -5.76%, dragged down by heavy spending on AI, infrastructure, and growth initiatives.
“Whether it’s Babcock International riding a defence spending boom to lift its operating margin to 8%, or Meta generating a 201% profit surge after cutting 21,000 jobs and doubling down on AI infrastructure, one message is clear: operational efficiency has become the defining corporate metric in today’s margin-driven economy,” according to BestBrokers’ analysis.
The efficiency champions
At the top of BestBrokers’ ranking sits Sweden-based holding company Industrivarden with an extraordinary 99.57% operating margin. The investment company achieves this through a business model centered on dividends and capital gains from portfolio companies, with minimal operating costs relative to revenue.
The port operations sector’s dominance stems from its unique economics. Companies like International Container Terminal Services (53.4%) and Adani Ports & SEZ (51.9%) make massive upfront infrastructure investments but enjoy minimal marginal costs per shipment once operational. Limited competition in these markets further supports premium pricing.
Railway operations follow similar patterns, with Canadian National Railway achieving 39.8% margins and Union Pacific Corporation at 36.2%. These companies benefit from enormous infrastructure investments that create natural barriers to entry while maintaining low ongoing operational expenses.
BestBrokers’ research shows that financial companies also achieve substantial margins, averaging 33.64% across the sector. Dubai Islamic Bank exemplifies this with a 74.38% operating margin, benefiting from fee-based income streams that carry very low marginal costs. Banks generally profit by borrowing at low interest rates and lending at higher rates, creating natural operational leverage.
Tech sector: A tale of two extremes
The technology sector presents BestBrokers’ most complex findings. While the industry averages -5.76% margins due to aggressive spending by early-stage AI, SaaS, and biotech companies, standout performers demonstrate the sector’s potential.
PT DCI Indonesia leads tech companies with 54.6% margins, capitalizing on low operating costs and steady income from data center contracts in Southeast Asia’s growing market. Japan’s Keyence maintains 52.2% margins through an asset-light model—holding zero inventory and outsourcing all production while focusing on high-margin automation solutions.
AppLovin achieves 37.5% margins by leveraging automation and AI for its mobile advertising platform, using algorithms to optimize ad placements and monetize gaming inventory. Similarly, tech giants Microsoft (43.8%) and Meta (44.4%) maintain margins above 40% through high-margin software, cloud services, and advertising businesses that scale efficiently once infrastructure is established.
At the other extreme, MicroStrategy reports an operating margin of -1,668.47%, largely due to its multi-billion-dollar Bitcoin acquisition strategy. Nebius Group, the Dutch AI and cloud infrastructure company that split from Russian tech giant Yandex, shows -335.31% margins as it invests heavily in expanding infrastructure amid rising interest rates and tighter investment conditions.
Automotive industry: Luxury wins, EVs struggle
BestBrokers’ automotive analysis reveals stark divisions within the industry. Ferrari dominates with 28.7% margins—nearly double Toyota’s second-place 15.4%—by producing just 13,752 vehicles in 2024 with premium pricing and limited production volumes. This contrasts sharply with the industry average of 4.8%.
Toyota’s efficiency stems from production scale and supply chain management across a diverse vehicle portfolio including trucks, sedans, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids. This broad approach helps the Japanese automaker maintain resilience amid regulatory changes and supply chain volatility.
Electric vehicle startups face the opposite challenge. Rivian reports -70.3% margins, struggling with significant upfront costs, production challenges, and supply chain disruptions. Chinese EV maker XPeng shows -10.26% margins as intense competition from NIO, BYD, and Tesla forces heavy investment in marketing and technology advancement.
Geographic performance patterns
BestBrokers’ country-by-country analysis reveals interesting regional patterns. Kuwait leads with 61.8% average margins, followed by Greece at 60.2% and the UAE at 54.7%. However, these countries have relatively few large-cap companies (1-8 companies each valued over $10 billion), making their averages less representative.
In Asia-Pacific, South Korea averages 30.6%, Australia 28.31%, and Japan 17.7%. European standouts include Austria (29.8%), Denmark (25.3%), and Belgium (22.4%), while larger economies like Germany (7.9%) and France (16.4%) show more moderate averages, likely reflecting challenges from green transition policies and rising labor costs.
Surprisingly, the United States averages just 0.2% despite having over 431 companies with market caps above $10 billion. The Netherlands similarly shows 3.00% margins across 20 large companies. BestBrokers attributes these low averages to high concentrations of capital-intensive, high-growth tech startups and growth-stage companies still investing heavily in expansion.
The efficiency imperative
BestBrokers’ research demonstrates that sector differences in operating margin reflect strategic trade-offs between growth versus profitability, automation versus labor, and scale versus localization. Companies achieving the highest margins typically fall into categories with natural advantages: infrastructure-heavy businesses with high barriers to entry, financial firms with operational leverage, luxury brands with pricing power, or technology companies with asset-light, scalable models.
The analysis suggests that as economic pressures intensify, operational efficiency will continue separating winners from losers across all industries. Companies that master the balance between strategic investment and operational discipline are positioning themselves for sustained profitability in an increasingly challenging environment.
This analysis is based on research conducted by BestBrokers using data from CompaniesMarketCap, Yahoo Finance, and Jika.io, covering quarterly data for Q2, Q3, and Q4 of 2024, and Q1 of 2025. The complete dataset and detailed company rankings are available at BestBrokers.com.
Download full report here
Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
