Finance
Every Company In and Out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Since 1928
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Every Company In and Out Of The Dow Since 1928
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is reported on daily by every major finance and media platform—a testament to its importance and relevance in global financial markets.
The market benchmark has a rich history embedded alongside America’s rise as a global superpower in the 20th century, and the inflows and outflows of companies on the 30 stock index coincide with broader secular trends. For example, the delisting of many industrial stocks over time encapsulates America’s transition towards a service-based economy. Meanwhile, the addition of tech companies in the last few decades paints a similar picture of change.
Today’s infographic looks at Dow data spanning over nine decades, all the way back to the tail end of the Roaring Twenties.
Crank Up The Volatility
An increasingly competitive and accelerating business landscape results in greater churn for stock market indices.
In fact, in the 92 years of activity visualized for the DJIA, there were 93 changes in its composition. This is not surprising, as the average duration of a company’s tenure on American indices has been trending down for decades—that said, 63% of Dow changes occurred in the second half of the 92 year sample period.
The current iteration of the DJIA includes some long-serving constituents, with the average length of companies in the index sitting at 20 years. General Electric was the last standing member of the original group from 1928, but in 2018, they were replaced by Walgreens.
2020 has also brought with it some fresh faces, including three changes so far. They include Salesforce for ExxonMobil, Amgen for Pfizer, and Honeywell International for United Technologies. Here’s a full list of the current companies in the index:
Company | Market Cap (B) | TTM Revenue (B) | YTD Stock Performance |
---|---|---|---|
American Express | $81.1 | $34.3 | -21.0% |
Amgen | $149.8 | $23.1 | 3.0% |
Apple | $1996 | $273.9 | 55.0% |
Boeing | $94.6 | $66.6 | -49.5% |
Caterpillar | $81.2 | $43.6 | -0.2% |
Cisco Systems | $167.2 | $49.3 | -18.5% |
Chevron | $134.8 | $115.0 | -40.3% |
Goldman Sachs Group | $69.3 | $18.2 | -14.4% |
Home Depot | $299.2 | $119.3 | 24.6% |
Honeywell International | $116.6 | $34.5 | -7.1% |
IBM | $109.1 | $74.3 | -9.8% |
Intel | $221.5 | $79.0 | -14.5% |
Johnson & Johnson | $392.2 | $80.5 | 0.8% |
Coca-Cola | $212.2 | $34.3 | -11.6% |
JPMorgan Chase | $295.4 | $76.3 | -31.6% |
McDonald's | $170.9 | $19.1 | 10.7% |
3M | $93 | $31.4 | -9.4% |
Merck & Co. | $209.9 | $47.2 | -10.0% |
Microsoft | $1596.3 | $143.0 | 31.4% |
Nike | $196.4 | $37.3 | 24.7% |
P&G | $347.3 | $71.0 | 9.9% |
The Travelers Companies | $27.6 | $28.6 | -21.6% |
United Health Group Inc. | $297.4 | $195.1 | 3.5% |
Salesforce | $195.8 | $19.4 | 52.2% |
Verizon | $255.3 | $129.7 | -3.5% |
Visa | $428.8 | $22.9 | 6.1% |
Walgreens Boots Alliance | $31.3 | $138.7 | -40.0% |
Walmart | $398.9 | $542.0 | 15.4% |
Walt Disney | $225.6 | $69.8 | -13.3% |
Dow | $35.4 | $3.1 | -14.9% |
Average | $297.67 | $88.5 | -3.1% |
Although all the stocks in the DJIA are intended to be in line with broader economic trends, the similarities end there. For some DJIA stocks, 2020 has brought growth and opportunity—for others, quite the opposite.
YTD stock price performances range vastly from a high of 55% to a low of -49%. Perhaps it serves as no surprise that the best performing companies serve in the tech space like Apple, Microsoft, and Salesforce, while the worst performing are the likes of Boeing and Chevron.
A Sign of the Times
The three changes in 2020 can best be described as modernizing the Dow.
The delistings include businesses in industries such as Aerospace & Defense and Big Pharma. But the most monumental exit? ExxonMobil, which was once the biggest company by market capitalization in America.
Their fall from grace best symbolizes the state and direction the world is headed towards.
Finance
Charted: How Long Does it Take Unicorns to Exit?
There are roughly 1,400 unicorns—startups worth $1 billion or more. How many years does it take these giants to get acquired or go public?
How Long Does it Take For Unicorns to Exit?
For most unicorns—startups with a $1 billion valuation or more—it can take years to see a liquidity event.
Take Twitter, which went public seven years after its 2006 founding. Or Uber, which had an IPO after a decade of operation in 2019. After all, companies first have to succeed and build up their valuation in order to not go bankrupt or dissolve. Few are able to succeed and capitalize in a quick and tidy manner.
So when do unicorns exit, either successfully through an IPO or acquisition, or unsuccessfully through bankruptcy or liquidation? The above visualization from Ilya Strebulaev breaks down the time it took for 595 unicorns to exit from 1997 to 2022.
Unicorns: From Founding to Exit
Here’s how unicorn exits broke down over the last 25 years. Data was collected by Strebulaev at the Venture Capital Initiative in Stanford and covers exits up to October 2022:
Years (Founding to Exit) | Unicorn Example | Number of Unicorns 1997‒2022 |
---|---|---|
1 | YouTube | 10 |
2 | 31 | |
3 | Groupon | 41 |
4 | Zynga | 43 |
5 | Salesforce | 36 |
6 | Alphabet (Google) | 51 |
7 | Tesla | 35 |
8 | Zoom | 59 |
9 | Coursera | 44 |
10 | Uber Technologies | 45 |
11 | WeWork | 46 |
12 | Airbnb | 35 |
13 | Credit Karma | 18 |
14 | SimilarWeb | 19 |
15 | 23andMe | 15 |
16 | Sonos | 11 |
17 | Roblox | 12 |
18 | Squarespace | 6 |
19 | Vizio | 9 |
>20 | Cytek | 17 |
Overall, unicorns exited after a median of eight years in business.
Companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Indeed are among the unicorns that exited in exactly eight years, which in total made up 10% of tracked exits. Another major example is Zoom, which launched in 2011 and went public in 2019 at a $9.2 billion valuation.
There were also many earlier exits, such as YouTube’s one-year turnaround from 2005 founding to 2006 acquisition by Google. Groupon also had an early exit just three years after its founding in 2008, after turning down an even earlier acquisition exit (also through Google).
In total, unicorn exits within 11 years or less accounted for just over three-quarters of tracked exits from 1997 to 2022. Many of the companies that took longer to exit also took longer to reach unicorn status, including website company Squarespace, which was founded in 2003 but didn’t reach a billion-dollar valuation until 2017 (and listed on the NYSE in 2021).
Unicorns, by Exit Strategy
Broadly speaking, there are three main types of exits: going public through an IPO, SPAC, or direct listing, being acquired, or liquidation/bankruptcy.
The most well-known are IPOs, or initial public offerings. These are the most common types of unicorn exits in strong market conditions, with 2021 seeing 79 unicorn IPOs globally, with $83 billion in proceeds.
2021 | 2022 | % Change | |
---|---|---|---|
# Unicorn IPOs | 79 | 13 | -84% |
Proceeds | $82.9B | $5.3B | -94% |
But the number of IPOs drops drastically given weaker market performance, as seen above. At the end of 2022, an estimated 91% of unicorn IPOs listed since 2021 had share prices fall below their IPO price.
A less common unicorn exit is an SPAC (special purpose acquisition company), although they’ve been gaining momentum and were used by WeWork and BuzzFeed. With an SPAC, a shell company raises money in an IPO and merges with a private company to take it public.
Finally, while an IPO lists new shares to the public with an underwriter, a direct listing sells existing shares without an underwriter. Though it was historically seen as a cheaper IPO alternative, some well-known unicorns have used direct listings including Roblox and Coinbase.
And as valuations for unicorns (and their public listings) have grown, acquisitions have become less frequent. Additionally, many major firms have been buying back shares since 2022 to shore up investor confidence instead of engaging in acquisitions.
Slower Exit Activity
While the growth of unicorns has been exponential over the last decade, exit activity has virtually ground to a halt in 2023.
Investor caution and increased conservation of capital have contributed to the lack of unicorn exits. As of the second quarter of 2023, just eight unicorns in the U.S. exited. These include Mosaic ML, an artificial intelligence startup, and carbon recycling firm LanzaTech.
As exit activity declines, companies may halt listing plans and eventually slow expansion and cut costs. What’s uncertain is whether or not this lull in unicorn exits—and declining influx of private capital influx—is temporary or part of a long-term readjustment.
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