MORRISTOWN (dpa-AFX) - The S&P Dow Jones Indices has announced a major shakeup in the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average or DJIA. The changes in the 30-member benchmark are effective before the market opens for trading on Monday, August 31.
Three new companies will now join the blue-chip index. Salesforce.com will replace oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp., while Amgen Inc. will replace drug major Pfizer Inc. and industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. will replace defense contractor Raytheon Technologies Corp.
The changes to the Dow components were prompted by tech giant Apple Inc.'s upcoming four-for-one stock split, which will reduce the index's weight in the Global Industry Classification Standard or GICS Information Technology sector.
The S&P Dow Jones Indices noted that the planned changes to the Dow Average will help offset that reduction. It will also help diversify the index by removing overlap between companies of similar scope and adding new types of businesses that better reflect the U.S.economy.
The changes will also not disrupt the level of the price-weighted index, S&P Dow Jones added. In a price weighted index, stocks with higher share prices are given greater weighting in the index.
San Francisco-based Salesforce.com is a developer of enterprise cloud computing solutions with a focus on customer relationship management.
Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen is a biotechnology company, while Honeywell International, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a technology conglomerate.
Exxon Mobil has been a Dow component for almost 100 years, while Pfizer was added to the index in 2004. Honeywell makes a comeback after it was removed from the average in early 2008.
Last week, Apple became the first U.S. company to hit a market capitalization of $2 trillion. Apple, along with many other technology companies, is being benefited by the pandemic as the majority of employees are forced to opt work from home, and schools worldwide are closed forcing students to continue their studies online.
Apple's stock has more than doubled over the past five months, since March, when its market cap was $1 trillion.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
PFIZER-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
