By Emily Bary
AppLovin and Interactive Brokers are among the largest companies by market cap that still aren’t in the benchmark index
Investors will soon find out which companies are making it into the big leagues.
The S&P 500 SPX gets a shake-up every quarter, and the next announcement is expected to come out after Friday’s close. Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD), AppLovin Corp. (APP) and Vertiv Holdings (VRT) are among the companies eligible for entry.
But that doesn’t mean they’ll get the nod. Not only do new entrants to the S&P 500 need to sport a market capitalization of at least $20.5 billion and meet various profitability criteria, but they also must be chosen by the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
While the committee requires a market cap of $20.5 billion for new arrivals, it doesn’t swiftly boot current components that don’t meet that threshold. About 28% of the companies in the S&P 500 have market values below that level, but historical patterns suggest that only a handful will get kicked out when the rebalance comes later this month. There were four new entrants and four exits with the last quarterly update.
Companies that make the cut for index inclusion tend to get more street credit. Take Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN), which missed out during recent quarterly rebalances but then got subbed in last month for Discover Financial, which has since been acquired by Capital One Financial Corp. (COF). “This news represents a positive step along Coinbase’s long-term journey and also a positive signal for the crypto industry more broadly as it represents the first crypto-native firm into the prestigious index,” Citizens analysts wrote at the time.
There are other benefits as well. Since many funds track the S&P 500, they’ll have to buy shares of the newcomers. For that reason, investors sometimes bid up shares of leading candidates ahead of the official announcements, which can lead to selloffs for the stocks that don’t end up making the cut.
AppLovin is the biggest eligible company by a wide margin, though the advertising-technology stock has been dogged by controversy this year. In February, short sellers questioned the company’s true worth to advertisers, prompting management to push back against the claims. While AppLovin shares fell sharply in the aftermath, they’ve since more than recovered.
The company’s market cap is now north of $140 billion – versus about $88 billion when it failed to earn a place in the index at the time of the March rebalance announcement.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Coinbase’s recent addition, is the financial-technology industry set to shake up the S&P 500 even further?
A number of fintech companies are among candidates for inclusion in the benchmark index – namely Interactive Brokers Group Inc. (IBKR), Robinhood and Block Inc. (XYZ).
Interactive Brokers ranks second by market cap among the companies that meet the eligibility criteria but don’t yet have a place in the index. The company had the second-largest market cap heading into the last rebalance as well, but it didn’t get chosen.
Robinhood’s stock is in the midst of a five-day rally that has seen it add roughly 19% over the span. That could suggest optimism on Wall Street about a potential S&P 500 nod.
Outside of fintech, there are other eligible companies with solid name recognition. They include Carvana Co. (CVNA), one of the largest businesses to meet the criteria, as well as Duolingo Inc. (DUOL), Pinterest Inc. (PINS) and Reddit Inc. (RDDT), which all rank toward the low end by market cap.
Vertiv, a play on data-center infrastructure, ranks among the top 10 by market cap.
Below is a table showing the 27 U.S.-domiciled companies with market caps of at least $20.5 billion that also meet the profitability requirements for inclusion. The screen, conducted by Dow Jones Market Data using FactSet data, excludes limited partnerships.
The announced changes would take effect after the close of trading on June 20.
Company Market capitalization AppLovin Corp. $140.9 billion Interactive Brokers Group Inc. $87.1 billion Southern Copper Co. $75.4 billion Carvana Co. $74.0 billion Robinhood Markets Inc. $63.8 billion Ares Management Corp. $55.2 billion Cheniere Energy Inc. $53.4 billion Veeva Systems Inc. $46.3 billion Vertiv Holdings $43.0 billion Datadog Inc. $41.3 billion Block Inc. $39.3 billion Trade Desk Inc. $37.4 billion Heico Corp. $36.3 billion Tradeweb Markets Inc. $32.7 billion LPL Financial Holdings Inc. $30.1 billion Blue Owl Capital Inc. $29.3 billion Markel Group Inc. $24.5 billion Zoom Communications Inc. $24.4 billion Ubiquiti Inc. $24.4 billion Toast Inc. $24.2 billion First Citizens BancShares Inc. $24.1 billion Duolingo Inc. $23.6 billion Pinterest Inc. $22.9 billion Reddit Inc. $21.8 billion Emcor Group $21.6 billion Guidewire Software Inc. $21.3 billion Nutanix Inc. $20.7 billion
-Emily Bary
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-05-25 1227ET
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