Arthur Zarins
The S&P 500 is a prominent market-weighted-value index maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices that tracks the performance of 500 of the largest public companies in the United States. Launched in March 1957, the index is often used as a proxy for the overall US stock market return and it is used widely by many passive investors due to strong historical performance.
This study investigates the lifecycle of over 1400 individual companies that have joined or left the S&P 500 index since 1960. It aggregates typical cumulative returns of stocks before joining the S&P 500, while they are a member of the S&P 500, and after being removed from the S&P 500 index when applicable.
Growth of a $1 Investment in the S&P 500 Index, Adjusted for Inflation
Chart assumes that dividends are reinvested.
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While the S&P 500 can be tracked by a singular mutual fund or ETF, its underlying performance is influenced by hundreds of individual portfolio companies. Here are all the companies that have joined or left the index since 1960.
The "Magnificent Seven" are the following prominent tech companies that have outpaced the S&P 500: Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. Each line represents their returns relative to the S&P 500 after each joined the index.
Highlighted is the typical range of cumulative performance of companies relative to the S&P 500 before joining the S&P 500. Ranges are based on stocks in the 20th to 80th percentile.
Here is the relative cumulative performance of range for companies while they are in the S&P 500. This range does not include their cumulative performance prior to joining the index. The data includes some companies that were temporarily removed from the index and subsequently re-added.
Finally, here is the relative cumulative performance of companies after they left the S&P 500 for the remainder of the period. Note that the data doesn't include any companies after they are delisted, which can be due to being acquired, mergers, bankruptcy, going private, or involuntary factors.
Monthly Stock Performance around Joining and Leaving S&P 500
Here is the average (geometric mean) monthly return of individual stocks before & after being added to the S&P 500. The data was winsorized at 2%.
Here is the 25th-75th percentile range of individual stocks before & after being added to the S&P 500. There is a wide range of stock performance.
The dotted line represents S&P 500's geometric mean performance over the same time.
Here is the average (geometric mean) monthly returns of individual stocks before & after being removed from the S&P 500. Removal from the index has an immediate averse affect, as passive investors tracking the S&P 500 quickly sell off their shares.
Here is the 25th-75th percentile range of individual stocks before & after being removed from the S&P 500. Data for the month the companies left the index is omitted due to acquisitions skewing the data.
Some limitations of this chart are that monthly data is used instead of daily, and events at the start or end of a month is treated as the same date.
S&P 500 Component Companies, February 2026
Total market capitalization of $62.5 trillion USD
The S&P 500 is a market-weighted-value index, allocating portfolio weights proportionally to companies' total market capitalizations. Here are component companies by market capitalization.
Companies are divided into the following 11 GICS sectors: Information Technology, Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary, Financials, Consumer Staples Health Care, Energy, Industrials, Materials, Utilities, and Real Estate.
The largest sector is Information Technology.
Larger companies have a greater influence on the S&P 500's overall performance. The largest company, NVIDIA, has more weight in the S&P 500 index than the smallest 220 companies in the index combined!
In February 2026 there were nine companies each valued over $1 trillion : Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Broadcom, Tesla, and Berkshire Hathaway. Together, they are worth 37.4% of the index and have a larger market capitalization than the smallest 447 companies in the index.
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Individual stock returns and S&P 500 returns were primarily sourced through Wharton Research Data Services' Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP).
The "Growth of a $1 Investment in the S&P 500 Index" chart focuses on inflation-adjusted cumulative returns for the S&P 500 and each component company in 3 phases: since the stock was launched, once it joined the S&P 500, or after it left the S&P 500 (if applicable). The inflation-adjusted cumulative returns for each component company is set to the S&P 500 index cumulative return at the onset of each phase. This was chosen to simulate cumulative returns an investor could make if they had invested in the S&P 500 and later invested in the individual stock.
For both "Growth of a $1 Investment in the S&P 500 Index" and "Monthly Stock performance around joining and leaving S&P 500" it is important to note these charts do not factor in the market cap or index weights for each component company. The S&P 500 is a price-weighted index, thus S&P 500 returns are concentrated on the performance of a smaller subset of stocks.
Wharton Research Data Services. "WRDS" wrds.wharton.upenn.edu, accessed 2026-02-20.
"S&P 500." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500, accessed 2026-02