Sparton Corporation (NYSE: SPA) announced that it has joined the Russell Microcap® Index according to the list posted June 28, 2010 on www.russell.com.
Membership in the Russell Microcap Index, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the appropriate growth and value style indexes. Russell determines membership for its equity indexes primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.
"We are very pleased to have been selected for the Russell Microcap® Index. Over the past eighteen months our Company has pursued a disciplined turnaround strategy which has resulted in our return to profitability. We view our selection for the Russell Microcap® Index as recognition of our efforts to date and a positive endorsement of our capabilities," stated Cary Wood, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sparton.
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.
Annual reconstitution of Russell Indexes captures the 4,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization to create the Russell 3000® Index and Russell Microcap. These investment tools originated from Russell's multi-manager investment business in the early 1980s when the company saw the need for a more objective, market-driven set of benchmarks in order to evaluate outside investment managers.
Total returns data for the Russell Microcap and other Russell Indexes is available at http://www.russell.com/Indexes/performance/default.asp.