Datadog (DDOG.US) to be included in the S&P 500 Index surged after the market

The Zhitong Finance App learned that S&P Global said that monitoring software provider Datadog (DDOG.US) will replace Juniper Networks as a component of the S&P 500 Index. According to a statement, S&P Global will implement this adjustment before the market opens on July 9. Boosted by this news, as of press release, Datadog surged nearly 11% after the market on Wednesday.

Computer server manufacturer HPE (HPE.US), which is also a component of the S&P 500 Index, said earlier that it has completed the acquisition of Juniper Networks, which focuses on data center networking hardware. HPE Technology disclosed in a document that it has paid out $13.4 billion to shareholders of Juniper Networks. Over the weekend, the two companies reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice, which had previously filed a lawsuit against the deal. As part of the settlement agreement, HPE Technology agreed to divest its global Instant On campus and branch businesses.

Although the technology industry already accounts for a large share of the S&P 500 index, as the industry continues to penetrate more sectors of society, the index also continues to increase its exposure to technology. In the latest weight adjustment in March of this year, DoorDash (DASH.US) became the latest technology company to join. Previously, in December 2023, the cloud software company Workday (WDAY.US) was also included in the index, and in early 2024, companies such as Palantir (PLTR.US), Dell (DELL.US), CrowdStrike (CRWD.US), GoDaddy (GDDY.US), and Ultra Micro Computer (SMCI.US) also joined one after another.

When a company is included in a major index, the stock price usually rises because fund managers need to adjust their portfolios to reflect the new index composition.

New York-based Datadog went public in 2019. The company achieved net profit of US$24.6 million and revenue of US$761.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. Its competitors include Cisco (CSCO.US), which bought Splunk last year, and Elastic and cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon (AMZN.US) and Microsoft (MSFT.US).

Despite this, Datadog's performance this year has lagged behind the tech sector as a whole. By Wednesday's close, the stock had a cumulative decline of 5.5% during the year, while the Nasdaq index rose 5.6%. However, Datadog's current market capitalization is $46.6 billion, which is far above the index's median level.