SpaceX's Nasdaq 100 weighting set to more than double, Bloomberg says

SpaceX is poised to gain a much larger weighting in the Nasdaq 100 later this month, a shift that could trigger billions of dollars in buying by passive funds that track the index, Bloomberg reported Saturday.

According to preliminary data from Nasdaq Global Index Watch distributed late Friday, the rocket and satellite company's index weight is projected to rise to around 2.82% from about 1.28%.

The final weighting will be set later this month. Wall Street anticipates the rebalancing will lead index funds and exchange-traded funds that track the Nasdaq 100 to buy billions of dollars of the stock.

One of the biggest funds affected is the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1, with roughly $481 billion in assets. Passive funds are required to align their portfolios with shifts in the makeup and weighting of the indexes they follow.

SpaceX's comparatively small weighting stems from when it joined the Nasdaq 100 in July. At that point, many of its shares were still under lockup restrictions and unavailable for public trading.

That constrained SpaceX's free float and, as a result, the weight it was assigned in the index. Nasdaq had earlier adjusted its rules so newly listed large-cap firms could enter the benchmark more quickly and removed a requirement that at least 10% of their shares be publicly tradable.

As those lockup periods lapse, more SpaceX stock has become eligible for trading, boosting its free float and enabling it to take a larger slice of the Nasdaq 100.

Once the new weighting is in force, the adjustment could also give SpaceX greater sway over the performance of the tech-heavy index.

More changes may lie ahead. Additional SpaceX shares are set to be released from lockup, which could further raise its free float and lead to another increase in its index weighting.

SpaceX stock ended at $151.21, gaining 2.04%, Bloomberg data showed.