The S&P 500 surpassing its record high prompted us to look at the guts of this bull market and find some of the best performers and underlying trends of the four-year rally.

The S&P 500 is up 131% from its March 9, 2009, bear-market low of 676.53, making it the sixth best 'bull market' for the index since 1929, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Here are five stats to know about the S&P 500's march into record territory, courtesy of our colleagues at WSJ Market Data Group:

1. BIGGEST GAINERS: Hotel company Wyndham Worldwide is the S&P 500's top performer since the bear-market bottom. Shares have risen from $3.10 on March 9, 2009, to $64.42 today, good for a 1,984.51% increase CBS Corp. is second, rising from $3.09 to $46.71 Tenet Healthcare Corp Fifth Third Bancorp and Seagate Technology round out the top five best performers. All three have risen more than 1,000% over the past four years.

2. TOP-PERFORMING SECTORS: The S&P 500's consumer-discretionary sector has been the top performer, rising 233% since the March 2009 bottom. Financials are second, up 192% and industrials are up 172%, rounding out the top three. While tech, materials, health care and consumer staples are in the middle of the pack, each of the four sectors has more than doubled over the past four years. Energy, telecom and utilities sit at the bottom of the pack, although their returns are nothing to sneeze at. Those three sectors are up 88%, 78% and 73%, respectively.

Measuring these figures from the previous peak, on Oct. 9, 2007, are more constructive. Data courtesy of Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, show consumer staples are the top performer from the previous peak, up 40%. Consumer discretionary stocks are a close second, up 39%, while health care is up 25% and tech is up 13%.

The notable laggard is the financial sector, which is still down 49% from the previous October 2007 peak. For all the progress financial stocks have made over the past four years, they still have a ways to go.

3. MARKET CAPITALIZATION: The S&P 500's cumulative market cap at its previous peak was $13.8 trillion in October 2007. That figure fell to $5.9 trillion at the bear-market bottom, but has since rebounded to $13.9 trillion as of yesterday's close, according to WSJ Market Data Group.

When it comes to market caps, the battle between Apple Inc. and Exxon Mobil for the top spot has gripped investors over the past year. When Apple shares spiked above $700, the company had a more than $200 billionadvantage in market cap over Exxon. That lead vanished during Apple's six-month slide and recently the two have been jockeying back and forth. Per FactSet data, Apple currently has a market cap of $424 billion, while Exxon's market cap is $405 billion.

4. DOW/S&P 500 RECORD CLOSES: The Dow and the S&P 500 have both closed at a record on the same day 601 times in their history, according to WSJ Market Data Group. The last time both indexes finished at all-time highs was Oct. 9, 2007.

5. TOTAL RETURN: The S&P 500 is getting plenty of attention for crossing above an all-time high, but when dividends are included, this milestone is old news. On a total-return basis, which includes dividends, the S&P 500 has been hitting record highs since April 2, 2012. It hit a total of seven records last year and 26 so far this year, as of yesterday's close, according to WSJ Market Data Group.

Steven Russolillo