Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex:INO), a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that the company is set to be added to the broad-market Russell 3000® Index when Russell Investments reconstitutes its comprehensive set of U.S. and global equity indexes on June 25, according to a preliminary list of additions updated on June 18 on www.russell.com. Addition of a company to the Russell indexes may lead to increased trading volume in that company's shares around the reconstitution date when investment funds tracking these indexes add these new component shares to their portfolios.
Annual reconstitution of Russell's U.S. indexes captures the 4,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization. Membership in the Russell 3000, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the large-cap Russell 1000® Index or small-cap Russell 2000® Index as well as the appropriate growth and value style indexes. Russell determines membership for its equity indexes primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.
The Russell 3000 also serves as the U.S. component to the Russell Global Index, which Russell launched in 2007.
Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies. An industry-leading $3.9 trillion in assets currently are benchmarked to them.