Dow Jones Industrial Average

Can you buy Dow Jones stock?

You can’t buy stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average itself, but you can get exposure to the Dow and the companies included in the index. Your investment options include:

1. Buy shares of all 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. With only 30 companies in the index, it's possible to directly purchase each stock in the Dow. Most brokers don't charge commissions on trades, and many allow fractional share investments, meaning you can buy partial shares. This investment alternative requires you to manage 30 separate stocks and make changes to your portfolio whenever the index changes (although, historically, the index only changes every couple of years).
2. Buy shares in a Dow-focused ETF. Exchange-traded funds that track the Dow's performance, such as the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEMKT:DIA), will invest you in the 30 companies listed in the Dow. Buying shares in an ETF is simpler than investing in 30 separate companies, and you are not obligated to make changes to your portfolio when the companies listed by the Dow change. As with most ETFs, an annual expense ratio -- a management fee -- is assessed by this ETF. The expense ratio of 0.16% works out to a fee of $1.60 per year for every $1,000 invested.
3. Invest in Dow options or futures contracts. You can buy Dow options contracts through the CBOE Global Markets options exchange and Dow futures contracts using the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) Chicago Mercantile Exchange. These types of securities are best suited for experienced investors since trading options and futures can be risky.

For novice investors who want portfolio exposure to a wide range of sectors through familiar large-cap stocks, the companies of the Dow Jones Industrial Average represent a good starting point for your research. That’s especially true if you’re seeking to invest in blue chip companies, which are generally the most stable and profitable on the market.

A brief history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Charles Dow established the Dow Jones Industrial Average on May 26, 1896. Earlier, in 1882, he co-founded the Dow Jones & Company with fellow journalists Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. The company would later become the parent of The Wall Street Journal.

Initially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was an index of 12 companies. Most were industrial companies such as General Electric (NYSE:GE). Over time, as the focus of the index shifted from measuring the performance of the heavy industrial sector to gauging the health of the entire U.S. stock market, the number of stocks in the index expanded. The index has been tracking 30 companies since 1928.

Companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tracks the stocks of these 30 companies:

1. 3M (NYSE:MMM)
2. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
3. American Express (NYSE:AXP)
4. Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN)
5. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
6. Boeing (NYSE:BA)
7. Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT)
8. Chevron (NYSE:CVX)
9. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)
10. Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO)
11. Disney (NYSE:DIS)
12. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)
13. Home Depot (NYSE:HD)
14. Honeywell International (NASDAQ:HON)
15. IBM (NYSE:IBM)
16. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
17. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM)
18. McDonald's (NYSE:MCD)
19. Merck (NYSE:MRK)
20. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
21. Nike (NYSE:NKE)
22. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)
23. Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG)
24. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)
25. Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW)
26. Travelers (NYSE:TRV)
27. UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH)
28. Verizon (NYSE:VZ)
29. Visa (NYSE:V)
30. Walmart (NYSE:WMT)

The index last changed members in November 2024 when Nvidia and Sherwin-Williams replaced Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Dow (NYSE:DOW).

How is the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average calculated?

Most stock market indexes are weighted by market capitalization -- equal to share price times the number of shares outstanding -- but the Dow Jones Industrial Average is price-weighted. The value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is calculated by determining the average value of the stock prices of the 30 listed companies. However, calculating that average value is not as simple as totaling the 30 stock prices and dividing by 30.

Mergers, spinoffs, stock splits, and other developments complicate the arithmetic and require a committee to formally determine a "Dow divisor" -- the denominator by which the sum of the 30 share prices is divided. As of November 2024, the Dow divisor was 0.162684. Using this divisor, you can calculate the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average by adding up the share prices of all 30 Dow companies and dividing that amount by 0.162684.

Any change in the share price of any Dow-listed company affects the value of the index equally, in accordance with Charles Dow's original vision. But it’s important to realize that, on a percentage basis, the movements of the highest-priced stocks have the greatest impact on the index's value.

For example, the highest-priced stock on the Dow in early March 2025 was Goldman Sachs, trading at $567.67. The lowest-priced stock was Verizon, trading at $44.23. Since Goldman's stock price is about 13 times greater than Verizon's, Verizon's share price would have to change by 13% to have the same impact on the Dow as a change of just 1% in the price of Goldman stock.

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