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The pig in the python: Baby Boomers are strangling the economy they built by refusing to move or retire

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Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

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The U.S. campaigned to host the World Cup. Now soccer fans will trade their countries' train system for the U.S.'s 'D' rated infrastructure
MagazineFortune 500

Why Investors Should Care More About the Fortune 500 Than the S&P 500

Matthew Heimer
By
Matthew Heimer
Matthew Heimer
Executive Editor, Features
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Matthew Heimer
By
Matthew Heimer
Matthew Heimer
Executive Editor, Features
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 17, 2019, 8:00 AM ET

In any given year, around 330 companies are included in both the S&P 500 index of large-cap U.S. stocks and the Fortune 500. But the differences between the lists matter in the market. Since 1996, publicly traded Fortune 500 companies have outperformed the S&P by 0.5 percentage points annually, according to Barclays, and using an “equal weighting” strategy, Fortune outperformed by almost two points a year. While the S&P 500 often includes stocks of popular but unproven businesses, a company can’t crack the Fortune 500 until it earns significant revenue; that explains much of the performance gap. Coming soon: products to help investors profit from that advantage.

A version of this article appears in the June 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “The ‘500’ Investors Should Actually Care About.”

More must-read stories from Fortune:

—The 2019 Fortune 500 list demonstrates the prize of size

—Why the giants among this year’s Fortune 500 should intimidate you

—What the Fortune 500 would look like as a microbiome

—The Occidental-Anadarko merger reveals the crude truth about oil prices

—It’s all clicking for Wayfair, a Fortune 500 newcomer

Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.

About the Author
Matthew Heimer
By Matthew HeimerExecutive Editor, Features
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Matt Heimer oversees Fortune's longform storytelling in digital and print and is the editorial coordinator of Fortune magazine. He is also a co-chair of the Fortune Global Forum and the lead editor of Fortune's annual Change the World list.

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