Roper Technologies Takes Over #257 Spot From HCP

In the latest look at the underlying components of the S&P 500 ordered by largest market capitalization, Roper Technologies Inc (ROP) has taken over the #257 spot from HCP, Inc. (HCP), 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 Roper Technologies Inc (ROP), the market cap is now $18.31 billion, versus HCP, Inc. (HCP) at $18.14 billion.

Below is a chart of Roper Technologies Inc versus HCP, Inc. plotting their respective size rank within the S&P 500 over time (ROP plotted in blue; HCP plotted in green): var SC_width = "600";var SC_height = "340";var SC_clientId = "bnkinvest";var SC_type = "pointline";var SC_period = "1y";var SC_chartBackgroundColor = "FFFFFF";var SC_gridLocation = "background";var SC_gridBackgroundColor = "EEEEEE";var SC_gridColor = "DDDDDD";var SC_axisColor = "DDDDDD";var SC_symbols = "ROP,HCP";var SC_showHighsLows = "no";var SC_movingAverages = "no";var SC_movingAverageColors = "FF8800,009900";var SC_symbolLabels = "no";var SC_labelSide = "left";var SC_lineThicknesses = "1,1";var SC_lineColors = "132B77,13772B";var SC_showPrevClose = "no";var SC_prevCloseColor = "990000";var SC_fillBelowLine = "no";var SC_fillColor = "FFFFFF";var SC_fillColor2 = "FF0000";var SC_smoothChart = "yes";var SC_smoothFonts = "yes";var SC_fontFace = "Arial";var SC_fontSize = "2";var SC_labelColor = "000000";var SC_bottomLabels = "9/1/15, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,10/30/15, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,12/31/15, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,3/3/16, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,5/3/16, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,7/1/16, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,8/31/16, ";var SC_beforeLeftLabels = "Rank-";var SC_afterLeftLabels = " out of 500";var SC_leftLabelsEvery = "20";var SC_leftBuffer = "120";var SC_rightBuffer = "35";var SC_bottomBuffer = "30";var SC_bottomTableHeight = "30";var SC_showVolumeTable = "no";var SC_showLegendTable = "yes";var SC_volumeColor = "FFFFFF";var SC_bkgImage = "";document.write(' <