BUSINESS MEMO: TOP BUSINESSES

D&K Healthcare Resources Inc., formerly D&K Wholesale Drug Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, has been named number one in the St. Louis Post Dispatch's 1999 "Top 50" public companies.

D&K, a drug wholesaler providing supplies to customers from facilities at St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Lexington, Ky., and Minneapolis, Minn., registered a 350 percent profit increase last year.

In the most recent quarter-sales and earnings report, D&K reported record sales and earning for the third quarter and nine months ended March 321, 1999.

Diluted earnings per share increased to 49 cents for the quarter and $1.11 for the first nine months of fiscal 1999, compared to 27 cents and 62 cents for same periods a year ago.

The results represent the 12th consecutive quarter in which net sales and earnings per share have improved.

Net sale for the third quarter totaled $214 million. The nine-month sales were $591 million, representing increases of 37.8 and 33.6 respectively.

D&K, this year's top company in the Post Dispatch honors, wasn't even in the running last year, because it had a loss in 1996.

Spartech Corp., a plastics manufacturer, and another company with Cape Girardeau connections -- two facilities here -- finished third on the list, behind D&K and Express Scripts Inc., a pharmacy benefits management company.