2019's IPOs make the cut for large-cap index

Earlier this month, FTSE Russell announced the annual reconstitution of its index families. Among the announcement's highlights were the record highs reached by the overall market cap of the indexes as well as the addition of some of 2019's more high-profile IPOs.

Uber, Lyft, Beyond Meat and PagerDuty are all to be added to the index when the reconstitution is complete. Uber is currently the largest among them with a $73.1 billion valuation, while ride-sharing peer Lyft is valued at $18.6 billion. The pair have had difficulties since their debut, falling 4.2% and 11.1%, respectively, since their IPO dates due to profitability concerns and public outcry over its employment practices. Beyond Meat has gone beyond expectations as the stock has returned more than 500% since its May 1 IPO, primarily driven by old-fashioned consumer demand and innovative product growth.

Microsoft replaced Apple as the largest index constituent when 2018's reconstitution was announced, as the veteran tech giant also passed Amazon and Google to gain the top spot. At the time of the announcement, Microsoft had a valuation of $974.2 billion; however, since then that number has grown to $1.02 trillion. Trillion-dollar valuations have been somewhat common over the past 12 months, with both Apple and Amazon enjoying time above that mark.