The Barron’s 400 Index Posts A Record Gain For First Half of 2013
Coral Gables, Florida (PRWEB) July 11, 2013 -- The Barron’s 400 Index finished the first half of 2013 at 425.03, a 16.2 percent gain and its best gain for the first half of the year since it was first introduced by Barron’s in 2007, according to MarketGrader, the stock research firm that has produced and maintained the index since its inception.
The Barron’s 400 (B400) performance exceeded that of some other major indexes for the six months that ended June 30. During that time period, the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index gained 13.1 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.8 percent, the NASDAQ gained 12.7 percent, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 12.6 percent.
“The Barron’s 400 Index certainly proved its longstanding ‘growth-at-a-reasonable price’ strategy was the right approach through the first half of this year,” said Carlo Diez, president and founder of MarketGrader.
“It is our core conviction that over time the market rewards companies which consistently grow their sales and profits, and whose stocks are not over-priced. Those are the companies we strive for in the Barron’s 400.”
The B400 Index seeks to identify the 400 most promising companies in the United States, using fundamental measures of growth, value, profitability and cash flow according to MarketGrader’s set of proprietary analytics, Diez said.
The 400 U.S. stocks in the B400 have an average market cap of $19.1 billion, a forward P/E ratio (12 months) of 18.3, a price/book ratio of 5.8, and average return on equity (ROE) of 32.3 percent.
MarketGrader, http://www.marketgrader.com , headquartered in Coral Gables, Fla., rebalances the B400 semi-annually in March and September, when certain stocks are removed and certain new ones are added. Currently, only 16 stocks have been included in the B400 for five years or longer while 124 have been in the index for two years running. Only 90 stocks are held in common by the Barron’s 400 and the S&P 500.
The B400 was jointly developed by Barron’s and MarketGrader and introduced on the cover of the September 3, 2007 issue of Barron’s magazine. Its results appear daily in the print and digital editions of The Wall Street Journal and on Barron’s Online. In June, at ETF based on the Barron’s 400 was launched under the ALPS ETF Trust.
John Morgan, MarketGrader, 888 529-1767, [email protected]
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