GICS
Also known as: Global Industry Classification Standard, sector classification
GICS, the Global Industry Classification Standard, is the system most of the market uses to sort public companies into and industries. It was developed jointly by S&P and MSCI and organizes the market into a hierarchy: 11 broad , split into groups, then industries, then narrower sub-industries.
Because GICS is used across the rather than each firm inventing its own categories, it lets an investor compare a company against a consistent , and lets build -specific indexes and , such as an energy fund or a healthcare fund, using a shared, standardized definition of what belongs in each group.
A company's GICS classification also shapes how its own numbers should be judged. A software company classified in the technology is expected to carry very different margins and growth than a company in the utilities , so knowing the classification is the first step before comparing one company's financial results against another's.