Henry V. Poor and the S&P 500 on This Day in History

 

Today in History: Henry Varnum Poor was born on this day in 1812. Poor was a financial analyst and founder of H.V. and H.W. Poor Co, which later became the financial research and analysis bellwether, Standard & Poor's, or if you will, the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. The 10 largest companies in the index are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet(class A & C), Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase and Visa Inc. The components that have increased their dividends in 25 consecutive years are known as the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats. It was only recently that AT&T, General Electric and ExxonMobil were in that top 10.

Tesla's stock will be added to the S&P 500 later this month. To be eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion, a company should be a U.S. company, have a market capitalization of at least USD 8.2 billion, the public float must consist of at least 50% of outstanding shares. It must have positive reported earnings in the most recent quarter, as well as over the four most recent quarters and the stock must have an active market and must trade for a reasonable share price.