NEW YORK, June 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASD: WBA) will replace General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) effective prior to the open of trading on Tuesday, June 26.

"General Electric was an original member of the DJIA in 1896 and a member continuously since 1907," says David Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Since then the U.S. economy has changed: consumer, finance, health care and technology companies are more prominent today and the relative importance of industrial companies is less. Walgreens is a national retail drug store chain offering prescription and non-prescription drugs, related health services and general goods. With its addition, the DJIA will be more representative of the consumer and health care sectors of the U.S. economy. Today's change to the DJIA will make the index a better measure of the economy and the stock market."

The DJIA is a price-weighted index, and the range of prices among its 30 constitutes matter. The low price of GE shares means the company has a weight in the index of less than one-half of one percentage point. Walgreens Boots Alliance's share price is higher, and it will contribute more meaningfully to the index. It will also help the index better represent the U.S. market and economy. Walgreens Boots Alliance, which is headquartered in Deerfield, IL, operates as a pharmacy-led health and wellbeing company.

The change won't disrupt the level of the index. The divisor used to calculate the index from the components' prices on their respective home exchanges will be changed prior to the opening on June 26. This procedure prevents any distortion in the index's reflection of the portion of the U.S. stock market it is designed to measure.

Additions to or deletions from an index are not an investment opinion or recommendation. 

For more information, please visit http://www.djaverages.com.

Following is a summary of the change:

For more information about S&P Dow Jones Indices, please visit www.spdji.com

ABOUT S&P DOW JONES INDICES

S&P Dow Jones Indices is the largest global resource for essential index-based concepts, data and research, and home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500^® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average^®. More assets are invested in products based on our indices than products based on indices from any other provider in the world. Since Charles Dow invented the first index in 1884, S&P DJI has become home to over 1,000,000 indices across the spectrum of asset classes that have helped define the way investors measure and trade the markets.

S&P Dow Jones Indices is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies, and governments to make decisions with confidence. For more information, visit www.spdji.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

David Blitzer

Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee
New York, USA
(+1) 212 438 3907
david.blitzer@spglobal.com

S&P Dow Jones Indices
index_services@spglobal.com

Media Inquiries
spdji_communications@spglobal.com

SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices