United Insurance Holdings Corporation is set to join the Russell MicrocapIndex when Russell Investments reconstitutes its comprehensive set of U.S. and global equity indexes on June 28, according to a preliminary list of additions posted on www.russell.com/indexes.
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.
John Forney, chief executive officer of UPC Insurance, commented, “We are pleased to be added to the Russell Microcap Index. UPC's inclusion in this index will increase our visibility with investors and institutions that rely on the Russell indexes as a key part of their investment strategy. We continue to build on our position as a leading underwriter of insurance in cat-exposed regions of the country, and have built a platform that we believe supports steady and profitable growth.”
Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies. Russell calculates more than 700,000 benchmarks daily covering approximately 98 percent of the investable market globally, 80 countries and more than 10,000 securities. Approximately $4.1 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell indexes.
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 3000Index and Russell Microcap Index. 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/data/US_Equity/Russell_US_Index_returns.asp.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].