S&P 500 Selling, General & Administrative Expense as a Share of Revenue (TTM)

Live value temporarily unavailable.

Source: Company filings (aggregated)

Data updated daily

What it measures

The S&P 500 SG&A-to-revenue ratio measures aggregate selling, general, and administrative expenses as a percentage of aggregate revenue for index constituents on a trailing-twelve-month basis. SG&A covers sales force costs, marketing spend, executive compensation, and back-office overhead. A reading of 12% means S&P 500 companies collectively spent $12 of SG&A for every $100 of revenue.

Why it matters

SG&A intensity measures the overhead burden of the business relative to its revenue base. Sustained SG&A compression signals improving operational leverage — fixed administrative costs being spread over a growing revenue base. Rising SG&A ratios can signal either aggressive growth investment in sales and marketing or cost control failures. At the index level, SG&A trends also reflect sector composition: asset-light services businesses carry high SG&A ratios while manufacturers with lean central functions carry low ones. When SG&A is rising faster than revenue and gross margins are stable, the operating margin compression shows up first in this line.

How it is calculated

SG&A / Revenue (TTM) = Σ TTM SG&A Expense ÷ Σ TTM Revenue × 100

LENSE computes the S&P 500 SG&A-to-revenue ratio as aggregate TTM SG&A expense divided by aggregate TTM revenue — not a simple average of per-company ratios. SG&A expense per constituent is sourced from as-reported quarterly income statements; TTM figures are constructed by summing the four most recently reported quarters. Constituents with zero or negative revenue are excluded. Index constituency is resolved point-in-time via the S&P 500 point-in-time index constituency.

Recent (monthly)

Recent data unavailable.

Data source: Company filings (aggregated). Computed and published by LENSE Analytics.