After hitting rock bottom during the height of corporate bailouts and the economic crisis, the public's perception of corporate America is bouncing back: The percentage of Americans who say the state of reputation of corporate America is "good" increased to 18% in 2009, up 6 percentage points from the 12% recorded a year earlier, and the first positive improvement in four years, according to the 2009 Harris Interactive RQ Study.

In addition, the percentage of Americans who say the state of corporate reputation is "not good" or "terrible" decreased to 81%, from 88% in 2008.

Below, other findings from the 11th Annual Harris Interactive US Reputation Quotient (RQ) Survey, which measures the reputation of corporate America and ranks the 60 "Most Visible Companies in the US."

Berkshire Hathaway No. 1 on Corporate Reputation

Among the six companies that received an RQ score over 80—considered an "excellent" reputation—Berkshire Hathaway took the top spot from frequent top-scorer Johnson & Johnson by less than 0.5 points. Rounding out the top 6 were Google, 3M Company, SC Johnson, and Intel Corporation.

SC Johnson (No.5) appeared on the list of the 60 most visible companies for the first time this year, and it is the first company since Google in 2005 to make its top 60 debut as a top 5 company.

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