Cash Balance Grows 5.7% Year-Over-Year

Cash Balance Grows 5.7% Year-Over-Year by Andrew Birstingl, FactSet

The S&P 500 (Ex-Financials) cash and short-term investments balance (cash) amounted to $1.45 trillion in the first quarter, which marked a 5.7% increase from the year-ago quarter and a 1% jump from Q4 2015. The balance in Q1 represented the largest cash total in at least 10 years.

Cash Balance

The Information Technology sector maintained the largest cash balance ($603.8 billion) at the end of Q1, which has been the norm for the index. The sector saw its balance grow 20.1% from the year-ago quarter, which was more than any other sector. Microsoft and Alphabet topped the list of...