Sector Weighting Changes For the S&P 500 Index ... What's the Deal?

Old_Skeet

Hello,

I just completed my weekly review of my portfolio using Moringstar’s Instant Xray analysis. I noticed, there seems to be some major sector weighting changes for the S&P 500 Index. Below is the spread sheet and in the first column is the sector, the second column is the new weighting, in the third column is the old weighting, and in the fourth column is the difference (amount up or down form the old).

Sector New Weight(%) Old Weight(%) Difference(%)

Cyclical 23.35 26.81 -03.46
Basic Materials 3.86 3.17 +0.69
Consumer Cyclical 9.38 9.35 +0.03
Financial Services 3.11 12.43 -09.32
Real Estate 7.00 1.86 +5.14

Sensitive 49.11 45.58 +3.53
Communication Srv 14.00 4.30 +9.70
Energy 11.52 12.15 -0.63
Industrials 11.28 11.68 -0.40
Technology 12.31 17.45 -5.14

Defensive 23.77 27.60 -3.83
Consumer Defensive 11.67 12.14 -0.47
Healthcare 8.71 11.67 -2.96
Utilities 3.39 3.79 -0.40

Not Classified 3.77 0.00 +3.77


I wonder if these stock sector changes really took place for the S&P 500 Index or if this is a snafu on the part of Morningstar?

Anybody have any good information on this?

Thanks,
Skeeter

Ted

Dear Skeeter: Sector Breakdown S&P 500 Index as of 4/20/12 Scroll
Regards,
Ted
http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-500/en/us/?indexId=spusa-500-usduf--p-us-l--
Easier to read :http://eresearch.fidelity.com/eresearch/markets_sectors/sectors/firmWeight.jhtml
Historical Sector Breakdown: 1990-2007 Lhttp://seekingalpha.com/article/45896-s-p-500-sector-weightings-a-historical-look

Old_Skeet

Hi Ted,

Thanks for the information. After I made the post I trolled around a little and came up with about the same weightings as you have linked. I again went back to Instant Xray and pulled another report and their new weightings still appear the same as I posted. It seems something must be amiss at Moringstar ... so I printed a hard copy of the report for my records incase I get called out on it.

Thanks again for your response. It is appreciated.

Skeeter

Investor

Reply to @Skeeter: I believe X-Ray is the M*'s own sector classification of the index. It may be that M* has reclassified a whole bunch of companies to a different sector. For example, a bunch of Financial companies seems to be classified in Real Estate sector.

The interesting thing is that another of their tool, Portfolio Allocator is still showing old weighing...

Old_Skeet

Thanks Investor,

I appreciate your look at this and your comment. Perhaps that is the case that some of the financials have been reclassified to real estate ... but, there seems to be some other changes too. Communication Services went form 4.30% to 14.00%. It is my thoughts that their sector weightings for the S&P 500 Index should be the same of what is reflected by S&P. As it now is, they are reflecting sector allocations that are not reprenenative of the true index. I'll keep checking through the coming week to see if it reverts back.

Thanks for your response.

Skeeter

AndyJ

Reply to @Skeeter: There have been tons of complaints at M* about misclassification in X-Ray. From the level of dissatisfaction expressed there, I'd be really cautious about X-Ray results, for anyone who decides to use it at all.