How Many Stocks Are in the S&P 500?

Here’s a question for you: How many stocks are in the S&P 500?

Starting tomorrow, the answer will be 501. That’s 501 stocks from 500 different companies. Tomorrow marks the debut of Google’s Class C shares.

It gets a little confusing. The Class C are nonvoting and will trade under the GOOG ticker. Up till now, GOOG has been for the A shares. Those A shares will now trade under GOOGL.

The B Shares are still held by the founders, Sergey and Larry. This post-modern stock split is supposed to be just like any other — and the C Shares are expected to trade at the same price as the Class A shares. If the A and C shares trade far enough apart, averaging more than 1% for a year, then Google will have to cough up the difference.

Why this weird split? It’s so Sergey and Larry will retain control with their special B Shares. It will be interesting to see how the market values the non-voting C Shares compared with the voting A Shares.

Posted by on April 2nd, 2014 at 2:53 pm


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