Match Shares Jump on S&P 500 Addition

The S&P 500 index has met its match. Online dating site Match is getting added to the broader stock market index, and its shares are soaring 9% in response during extended-hours trading. The stock took investors on a wild ride over the summer but is just about flat year-to-date. The changes in the S&P 500 are part of the index’s quarterly shufflings based on the latest market activity.

In & Out Index

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Match Group will replace the outgoing Perrigo Company, the latter of which will move to the S&P MidCap 400 index. In addition to Match Group, other newcomers to the S&P 500 index include insurer Brown & Brown and IT company Ceridian HCM Holding.

The Match stock bump could have something to do with the fact that index funds that track the S&P 500 must gain exposure to the stock by design. In order for Match as well as Brown & Brown and Ceridian to keep their spots, they must maintain a minimum market cap of $13.1 billion. Match shouldn’t have any trouble as it currently boasts a market cap of $41 billion.

Going Steady

One of the companies that the trio of new S&P 500 members beat out was meme stock GameStop. The video game retailer recently joined the S&P MidCap 400 Index, and with a market cap of $15 billion could technically qualify for the S&P 500. The sticking point for GameStop, however, is its inherent volatility as a meme stock. S&P Global tends to select names that are more predictable in nature, such as insurance stock Brown & Brown.

Shares of Brown & Brown are up nearly 2% in after-hours trading on the index development. Year-to-date, the dividend-paying stock is up 24%. In the same period, GameStop’s stock is up more than 900%. Ceridian, the third stock to be added, tacked on just over 1% in after-hours trading on the index development.

Match is poised to generate revenues of $3 billion-plus this fiscal year. The company is among those to benefit from Apple’s recent decision to change its App Store fine print so that subscription-based companies can keep a larger piece of the sales pie. Match, which owns the popular dating app Tinder, is behind Tinder subscriptions tiers Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold and Tinder Platinum.