Alibaba: Would Be Top 15 Company by Market Cap in S&P 500

The initial public offering (IPO) for shares of Alibaba Group Holding occurred on Friday, September 19. Based on the opening price of $92.70 and the projected number of shares outstanding after the offer (2.465 billion), the market capitalization of the company would stand at $228.5 billion.

Alibaba Group Holding is not a constituent in the S&P 500 index. However, using this market capitalization, where would the company rank if it were a member of the S&P 500?

Based on yesterday’s closing prices for the companies in the S&P 500, Alibaba would be one of the largest 15 companies in the S&P 500 by market capitalization. It would rank #12 in the index overall, ahead of companies in more “traditional” industries such as Pfizer ($193.9 billion), IBM ($193.3 billion), and Coca-Cola ($183.3 billion).

Looking specifically at the Internet Software & Services sub-industry in the S&P 500, Alibaba would rank second out of seven companies by highest market capitalization. It would be behind Google, but ahead of Facebook, eBay, Yahoo!, Akamai Technologies and VeriSign.

Looking specifically at the Internet Retail sub-industry in the S&P 500, Alibaba would rank first out of six companies by highest market capitalization. It would be ahead of Amazon.com, priceline.com, Netflix, TripAdvisor, and Expedia.