Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. rose to first place in Harris Interactive's annual survey of corporate reputations as the financial crisis pushed the nation's biggest banks toward the bottom of the list.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm in history, came in 56th out of 60, and Citigroup Inc., formerly the biggest U.S. bank, was 57th, according to Harris, the market research and polling firm, which released the results Monday. Bank of America Corp., the nation's largest lender, was 52nd and JPMorgan Chase & Co. was 53rd.
Berkshire advanced from 11th in the survey, which ranked 60 of the "most visible" U.S. companies. The insurance and holding company, based in Omaha, dethroned health-care company Johnson & Johnson by less than half a percentage point.
Among industries, only tobacco companies scored worse than financial services.
