In the latest look at the underlying components of the S&P 500 ordered by largest market capitalization, Cintas Corporation (NASD: CTAS) has taken over the #413 spot from Airgas Inc. (NYSE: ARG), according to The Online Investor. Click here to find out the top S&P 500 components ordered by average analyst rating »
Market capitalization is an important data point for investors to keep an eye on, for various reasons. The most basic reason is that it gives a true comparison of the value attributed by the stock market to a given company's stock. Many beginning investors look at one stock trading at $10 and another trading at $20 and mistakenly think the latter company is worth twice as much — that of course is a completely meaningless comparison without knowing how many shares of each company exist. But comparing market capitalization (factoring in those share counts) creates a true "apples-to-apples" comparison of the value of two stocks. In the case of Cintas Corporation (NASD: CTAS), the market cap is now $8.59 billion, versus Airgas Inc. (NYSE: ARG) at $8.53 billion.
Click here to find out The 20 Largest U.S. Companies By Market Capitalization »
Below is a chart of Cintas Corporation versus Airgas Inc. plotting their respective size rank within the S&P 500 over time (CTAS plotted in blue; ARG plotted in green):
Below is a three month price history chart comparing the stock performance of CTAS vs. ARG:
Another reason market capitalization is important is where it places a company in terms of its size tier in relation to peers — much like the way a mid-size sedan is typically compared to other mid-size sedans (and not SUV's). This can have a direct impact on which mutual funds and ETFs are willing to own the stock. For instance, a mutual fund that is focused solely on Large Cap stocks may for example only be interested in those companies sized $10 billion or larger. Another illustrative example is the S&P MidCap index which essentially takes the S&P 500 index and "tosses out" the biggest 100 companies so as to focus solely on the 400 smaller "up-and-comers" (which in the right environment can outperform their larger rivals). So a company's market cap, especially in relation to other companies, carries great importance, and for this reason we at The Online Investor find value to putting together these rankings daily.
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According to the ETF Finder at ETFChannel.com, CTAS and ARG collectively make up 1.15% of the PowerShares S&P 500 High Quality Portfolio ETF (SPHQ) which is lower by about 0.2% on the day Tuesday.
See what other ETFs contain both CTAS and ARG »
At the closing bell, CTAS is up about 0.6%, while ARG is down about 0.6% on the day Tuesday.
