5 Lean, Mean Profit Machines

CF Industries

Employees: 1,500
Profit Per Employee: $391,133

CF Industries  (NYSE:CF) makes and distributes nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer products across the world, dealing in things like ammonia, as well as tongue-twisters like diammonium phosphate and monoammonium phosphate.

Since its founding in 1946, CF has grown into the second-largest nitrogen fertilizer producer in the world and the third-largest phosphate fertilizer producer among public companies. All told, CF Industries is a $14 billion company whose scant 1,500 employees help bring in $1.7 billion in revenues annually.

But what makes CF so efficient is … well, its focus on efficiency: The company has cut expenses dramatically during the year, whittling nearly $100 million from the line to achieve to a nearly 60% profit margin. In addition, in 2011 the company generated enough free cashflow to purchase $1 billion of its own stock, a nice way to bump up EPS.