Charter Communications stock reached an all-time high Thursday -- $270.40 per share, up 5% and beating its previous high of $261.75 each soundly – after the cable operator was added to the S&P 500 Index.
The S&P 500 includes some of the biggest public firms in the world, such as Apple and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. On the media side, S&P 500 companies include Comcast, AT&T, Netflix, Discovery Communications, Viacom and Scripps Networks.
Charter was added to the S&P’s Cable & Satellite Sub-Industry index. It took the place of computer company EMC, which was purchased by privately held Dell Computer on Sept. 1.
The S&P 500 Index is one of the more popular stock indexes, and inclusion can significantly boost a company’s exposure and trading volume. For example, Charter trading volume Thursday afternoon was about 4.7 million shares, more than three times the 1.4 million shares that traded hands the day before. Several large hedge funds regularly invest in S&P 500 stocks.
Charter shares still have some room to climb – they were trading at $271.20 each (up $13.99 per share or 5.4%) in afternoon trading Thursday.
