Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is getting the wish that many index investors have been hoping would happen. In fact, many index traders were expecting that Facebook would be added to the S&P 500 index a year ago. The S&P Indices group announced late on Wednesday that Facebook will replace the Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER) in the S&P 500. It was also announced that Facebook shares will replace The Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) in the S&P 100. The Williams Company will remain in the S&P 500.

Readers should be reminded here that there are multiple times more funds and benchmarks based against the S&P 500, and it is actually the biggest benchmark of most equity funds.

Teradyne will replace Scholastic Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHL) in the S&P MidCap 400, and Scholastic will replace Lincoln Education Services Corp. (NASDAQ: LINC) in the S&P SmallCap 600. Lincoln Education Services currently ranks 600th in the S&P SmallCap 600 and is no longer representative of the small cap market space.

Facebook shares closed down 1.7% at $49.38 on Wednesday and were seen up 3.6% at $51.15 or so in the after-hours reaction. Its 52-week range is $22.67 to $54.83 and the consensus analyst price target from Thomson Reuters is listed as $58.52 as of now.

With a $121 billion market cap, investors will have to consider the real free float here rather than the full market value. Several other index changes were made as well, but this is the big one.

Mark Zuckerberg just became 3% richer, and he didn’t even have to announce a product or make a presentation.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.