SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Russell Investments has posted its official lists of companies that are set to join or leave the broad-market Russell 3000® Index when its industry-leading U.S. equity indexes are reconstituted on June 24. These lists of U.S. companies—and lists of additions and deletions for the Russell Global Index—are available at http://www.russell.com/Indexes/tools-resources/reconstitution.asp.
With these changes the combined market capitalization of stocks in the Russell 3000, which reflects about 98% of the investable U.S. equity universe, will increase from $13.4 trillion as of May 31, 2010, to $16.7 trillion as of May 31, 2011. Similarly, the median market capitalization will increase by 23.0% from $802 million in 2010 to $1.04 billion.
“Russell’s index reconstitution process reflects that, while the U.S. economy continues to transition from recovery to expansion, it’s a grinding expansion riddled with ups and downs,” said Steve Wood, chief market strategist for North America at Russell Investments. “In a capital market that has been buffeted by more than a few jolts in the past year, the U.S. broad-market- as reflected by the Russell 3000 - has grown by $3.3 trillion. It’s been a slog, but the U.S. market has ground upward in the past year.”
Today’s list of preliminary additions for the Russell 3000 features 186 companies, including 22 initial public offers, and shows a relatively even distribution of “additions” among sectors. The list shows 35 firms in the health care sector, 33 in the financial services sector and 31 in the technology sector.
Russell’s index research shows Exxon Mobil ($411.2 billion) and Apple ($321.7 billion) will continue to rank as the largest two companies in the Russell 3000 in terms of market capitalization, while Chevron will re-enter the top 10 as the fourth largest stock.
"Reconstitution is a key feature of truly representative benchmarks,” said Rolf Agather, head of index research and innovation at Russell. “Russell’s unique process completely recalibrates Russell's U.S. Indexes to today’s market realities, ensuring that stocks are moved into the right ‘buckets’ to truly represent small-cap, midcap, large-cap and microcap stocks. It also serves as a clear measure of the shifts in relative valuations of value and growth stocks over the past year."
Today’s preliminary lists of additions and deletions represent the first public step in Russell’s annual reconstitution process. Any updates to these lists will be posted June 17 and 24. The final membership lists for the Russell 3000, Russell 2000® Index and Russell 1000® Index will be posted June 27.
Membership in Russell’s U.S. equity Indexes—widely used as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies—is determined by objective rules, such as market capitalization rankings. Accurate benchmarks are an integral part of Russell’s ongoing process to monitor investment manager products worldwide for Russell’s $161 billion active investment management business.
Russell Investments is the owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to its indexes.
Russell's indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly.
Russell Investment Group is a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide, including Russell Investments, and is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
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