After the market’s close on Friday, March 18th, 2005, Standard & Poor's will implement half-float adjustment for the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, S&P SmallCap 600 and S&P REIT Composite indices. At the same time, the usual quarterly share count updates will be implemented.
The following investable weight factors (IWFs) will be changed for the implementation of half float on March 18th and full float on September 16th, 2005:
| Index | Company (Ticker) | New Half Float | New Full Float | Old Half | Old Full |
| 500 | General Mills (GIS) | 1.00 | 1.00 | 0.90 | 0.79 |
| 500 | Freeport-McMoran (FCX) | 1.00 | 1.00 | 0.94 | 0.87 |
| 500 | Goldman Sachs (GS) | 0.92 | 0.83 | 0.81 | 0.62 |
| 600 | Cyberonics (CYBX) | 0.91 | 0.81 | 0.83 | 0.66 |
- The transition to half float will not affect the closing values of the official U.S. indices, nor will new indices be created. Further, as with any index change, the implementation will assure that this transition does not affect index levels; the only forces affecting index levels are changes in prices of the constituent securities.
- Beginning on Monday, March 21st, 2005, the official values disseminated to quote vendors and websites will be the half-float values. Standard & Poor's will continue to calculate non-float adjusted versions of these indices for research purposes.
- Likewise, it should be noted that although each official index will transition to a half-float structure, this does not mean that the new official indices will be the half-float indices currently published. Rather, the current official indices will be adjusted in such a way as to effect continuity with the new official half-float indices, at which point the currently published half-float indices will cease to exist.
- All companies added to an S&P U.S. index after Friday, March 18th, 2005 will be added with a full-float IWF.
- Quarterly share changes to be implemented on Friday March 18th will be announced after the close on Wednesday March 16th on S&P’s subscription service, Index Alert. This is the same procedure used at every quarterly share update.
In a float-adjusted index, the number of shares of a company reflects only the shares available to investors, not the total shares outstanding. Over the last few years, float adjustment has become the accepted standard for capitalization-weighted indices. In March 2004, Standard & Poor's announced it would move its U.S. indices to float adjustment in two steps, on March 18th and September 16th, 2005. On September 28th, 2004, Standard & Poor's published the details of the changes and its float adjustment methodology. Each stock is assigned an IWF representing the percentage of its shares that are available to the public. These figures were released on September 28th, 2004. Subsequently, on November 2nd, S&P revised figures for four companies. There are four additional revisions included in this release. It is expected that updated IWFs, reflecting year-end 2004 proxy statements, will be published shortly before the September 16th move from half float to full float. Further information can be found at www.freefloat.standardandpoors.com.
About Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research, data and valuations. With 6,000 employees in 21 countries, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure, and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com.
