Why Are VRT, LITE, COHR, SATS Stocks Rising After Hours?

S&P Dow Jones Indices, a division of S&P Global, said on Friday that the four stocks will join the S&P 500 index before the market opens on March 23 as part of its quarterly rebalance.

• The changes ensure that each index is more representative of its market-capitalization range. 
• Market analysts were expecting Lumentum, Coherent, and Vertiv to be included in the S&P 500 index. 
• The surprise inclusion in the index was of EchoStar. 

Vertiv Holdings, Lumentum, Coherent and EchoStar stock rose in extended hours of trading on Friday after they were included in the S&P 500 index.

S&P Dow Jones Indices, a division of S&P Global, said on Friday that Vertiv Holdings (VRT), Lumentum Holdings (LITE), Coherent (COHR) and EchoStar (SATS) will join the S&P 500 index before the market opens on March 23, as part of its quarterly portfolio rebalance. The changes ensure that the index is more representative of its market-capitalization range. 

Shares of Vertiv, Lumentum, Coherent and EchoStar were up 6%, 1.8%, 0.8% 4.4% at the time of writing. 

In Line With Expectations

Meanwhile, Match Group (MTCH), Molina Healthcare (MOH), Lamb Weston (LW), and Paycom (PAYC) were deleted from the S&P 500. The changes were largely in line with street expectations. 

Alongside the S&P 500 index, changes have been made to other indices as well. Some of the prominent names like PayPal Holdings and Target will be removed from the S&P 100 index and Micron Technologies will be added to the index. 

Market analysts were expecting Lumentum, Coherent, and Vertiv to be included in the S&P 500 index. EchoStar was a surprise inclusion in the index. 

Other News

Vertiv earlier on Friday declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.0625 per share of the company's Class A common stock. It said that the cash dividend will be payable on March 26, 2026, to shareholders of record of Class A common stock at the close of business on March 17, 2026.

Coherent on Friday announced the general availability of the industry’s first dual-laser QSFP28-DCO module designed to enable bi-directional 100G coherent transmission over a single working fiber. 

Meanwhile, earlier in the week, Rosenblatt analyst Mike Genovese raised the firm's price target on Lumentum to $900 from $580 and kept a ‘Buy’ rating on the shares. Rosenblatt said that the Nvidia’s deal is driven by co-packaged optics. It cited higher earnings power for the target boost.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

Retail sentiment around VRT stock trended in ‘bullish’ territory, meanwhile COHR, LITE trended in ‘extremely bullish’ amid ‘normal’ message volume. SATS stock was trending in ‘neutral’ territory. 

Shares in VRT have been flat year-to-date. SATS, COHR, LITE shares have risen 1.2%, 26.3% and 50% so far in 2026. 

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