10 of the Oldest Companies in the S&P 500

The S&P 500 wasn't always the standard-bearer that it is today -- the index that's generally seen as a stand-in for the market as a whole. That title belonged to the Dow Jones Industrial Average for much of the stock market's history, but you might be surprised to learn that many of the companies in the S&P 500 are older than the index itself. In fact, some are nearly as old as the country.

Keep reading to see 10 of the oldest companies in the S&P 500.

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Today, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is one of the biggest consumer products companies in the world with brands like Gillette, Tide, and Crest under its belt.

The household products company has been around since 1837, when William Procter and James Gamble founded the company making candles and soap, their respective specialties.

Ivory soap became its first big brand-name product late in the 19th century, and today the company owns 22 billion-dollar brands in a range of product categories.

Given its legacy and portfolio of global brands, the company seems like a good bet to be around another 200 years.

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Like Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is another timeless consumer products company that's been around forever.

Founded in 1886, the company may be best known for its secret formula behind its namesake product, the world's most popular branded beverage. But today, the company owns 20 billion-dollar beverage brands in a variety of categories, including juice (Minute Maid and Simply), sports drinks (Powerade and VitaminWater), and iced tea (Gold Peak and Fuze).

Coca-Cola is the biggest beverage company in the world, and with its marketing muscle, distribution network, and well-known brands, that's unlikely to change anytime soon.

Like Coca-Cola, another stock market giant founded in 1886 was Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), which is today the most valuable healthcare company in the U.S.

Johnson & Johnson operates in three segments, consumer products like Tylenol and Band-Aid, pharmaceuticals like autoimmune drug Remicade, and medical devices.

That's been a winning formula for the company for years, but it's actually in the midst of a split, cleaving the consumer products business from pharmaceuticals and medical devices. A number of companies have followed this playbook in recent years, believing that the stocks are suffering from a "conglomerate discount" as it can be difficult to value businesses with a wide range of product lines.

J&J management also seems to believe the medical devices and pharma sides of the business deserve a higher valuation.

Appliance maker Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) may be best known for modern appliances like refrigerators, dishwashers, and washer-dryers, but the company is actually more than a century old, dating back to 1911.

Washing machines were its first major product category, and it grew rapidly in the 20th century with the help of a partnership with Sears, the biggest retailer of the time.

Today, the company is the global leader in home appliances and owns a number of well-known brands including Maytag, KitchenAid, and Hotpoint.

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Banking may be the oldest business that's still represented in the S&P 500 today, and not surprisingly, many of the oldest companies in the index are banks.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), which is the product of several bank mergers over the years, may be the oldest of the bunch, tracing its roots back to 1799, shortly after the founding the country. In its earliest form, it was known as the Manhattan Company, founded by Aaron Burr, the country's third vice president.

John Pierpont Morgan, the financier that's now its namesake, came on the scene in the late 19th century, helping to shore up U.S. gold reserves, creating U.S. Steel, and financing the Panama Canal.

In 2000, JPMorgan merged with Chase Manhattan Bank, creating the modern financial giant it is today with strong positions in both commercial and investment banking. Today, the company is worth nearly $500 billion.

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As recently as 2000, General Electric (NYSE: GE) was the most valuable company in the U.S., with a market cap of around $600 billion. Jack Welch, CEO at the time, was heralded as the visionary of his era, delivering a 30-fold return to investors at one point.

However, the company would go on to struggle for the next 20 years as the financial crisis blew a hole in its financial business, and its conglomerate strategy went wayward with investors questioning its abstruse accounting.

The company was founded in 1878 and has a storied history, merging with what was Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Light Company and inventing a number of household products including the electric stove and the fan.

GE is currently in the midst of a split, breaking into three pieces -- aviation, healthcare, and energy -- showing how fragmented the business has become.

You wouldn't expect to find many tech companies on a list of the oldest businesses in the S&P 500, but IBM (NYSE: IBM) is the exception that proves the rule.

The onetime tech giant was found in 1911, and like GE was once the most valuable American company, back in the 1980s. After a long history of leadership in mainframe computers, and personal computers when they first started going mainstream, IBM has pivoted to services and today is closer to a consulting firm than a hardware maker, selling cloud software and doing enterprise consulting.

While it remains highly profitable, it has struggled to grow over the past decade and the stock has performed poorly.

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With roots going back to 1870, ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) is the biggest company to emerge from the breakup of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller's oil monopoly.

Exxon is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, and it was the most valuable American company just a decade ago before passing the baton to Apple.

Since then, the company has struggled with languishing oil prices and an investing public that sees electrification as the next frontier, betting big on electric cars and other green ideas. That's been bad news for Exxon, which has been forced to take billions in write-downs as its assets aren't as valuable as it once thought they were. Today, the company is worth about $300 billion, down from its peak above $500 billion shortly before the financial crisis.

3M (NYSE: MMM) is yet another conglomerate to make the list. 3M, which stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, was founded in 1902, and today makes a wide range of products, including Scotch tape, N95 masks, and medical equipment.

The company began as a mining company, but when the founders discovered what they thought was a valuable mineral was, in fact, ordinary, they pivoted to applied materials, innovating new products and paving the way for what is now a diversified powerhouse with products used in homes, business, schools, and hospitals.

A third of the company's sales comes from products invented in the past five years, showing that the spirit of innovation continues.

Finally, we have another Minnesota company and popular consumer products company, General Mills (NYSE: GIS), to close out the list.

General Mills was founded in 1866 and owns several popular brands found in your local supermarket, including breakfast cereals like Cheerios, Yoplait yogurt, Pillsbury dough, Blue Buffalo pet food, and Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Like other century-old consumer products companies, General Mills has grown both organically and through acquisitions, taking over Pillsbury, Annie's, and Blue Buffalo over the years.

While it has been a slow grower in recent years, its brand portfolio should ensure that the company is a supermarket staple for many years to come.

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Plenty of companies from the 1800s have been bumped from the S&P 500 over the years, and it's likely that some of these companies will eventually lose their status on the list. GE, for example, with its plan to split into three parts, could be next in line.

Still, it's a credit to these companies that they've lasted more than 100 years and are still among the top 500 in the country. As the list above shows, it helps to have a timeless set of brands and an enduring business model of selling products that are always in demand.

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool recommends 3M and Johnson & Johnson and recommends the following options: long March 2023 $120 calls on Apple and short March 2023 $130 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.