NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- For the sixth consecutive year, the top quartile companies in the Rittenhouse Rankings 2011 Corporate Culture and Candor Survey^TM outperformed the lowest quartile companies and the S&P 500 Index, posting an average increase of 9.9 percent.  The stocks of bottom-ranked companies declined 5.7 percent, while the S&P rose 3.1 percent.

"The executive communications of these top-ranked companies demonstrate strong commitment to protect corporate reputations, build cultures of accountability and achieve superior results," said Rittenhouse Rankings President L.J. Rittenhouse.  The stocks of the five companies posting the greatest year-over-year candor gains in the 2011 survey – Home Depot, Intel, Foot Locker, Franklin Resources and Citigroup – increased an average 12.4 percent compared to a 0.5 percent drop for companies whose rankings declined the most.

Other Corporate Candor trends include:

• Deductions for FOG (the absence of Candor) declined 16 percent in 2011 compared to 2010, an indicator of improving corporate candor and transparency. 
• Church & Dwight and Home Depot ranked highest in Communication Efficiency in 2011, while DuPont and Honeywell took top honors in 2010.
• Entergy Corporation and Travelers Companies scored highest in Risk Assessment and Awareness, while Wells Fargo and Travelers took top honors in 2010.

Companies in the annual Rittenhouse Rankings Culture and Candor Survey^TM represent a cross-section of 100 large and mid-sized corporations based on industry sector, financial performance and corporate reputation.  The top and bottom-ranked companies in the 2011 survey are:

These and other findings are reported in Investing Between the Lines: How to Make Smarter Decisions by Decoding CEO Communications (McGraw-Hill January 2013).

Rittenhouse Rankings Inc., a pioneering investor-relations firm works with companies to build stakeholder trust and protect corporate reputations.  Clients improve execution and strengthen corporate valuations through strategic benchmarking, stakeholder perception analyses and incorporating linguistic best practices.

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SOURCE Rittenhouse Rankings, Inc.