Kansas City Southern to join S&P 500

Standard & Poor's (S&P) last week announced that Kansas City Southern will replace Dean Foods Co. in the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Thursday.

The S&P 500 is a stock market index based on the market capitalization of 500 leading publicly traded companies in the U.S. stock market. KCS, currently a S&P MidCap 400 constituent, also will be added to the S&P 500 GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) Railroads Sub-Industry index.

The S&P 500 is "one of the most commonly followed equity indices, and may be considered to be the best representation of the stock market and a bellwether for the U.S. economy," said KCS Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Upchurch in an item posted on the "KCS News" web page. "KCS' entry into the index is another important milestone for the company, and a result of our strong stock price performance and growth in market capitalization."