These tech stocks still have a price above $1K — will they split?

What’s actually a normal stock price?

Tech companies listed on US stock exchanges have a median share price of $23. If we only look at large-cap tech companies, with a market capitalization of over $10 billion, that figure is $123. That’s close to Apple’s stock price after its latest stock split earlier this week.

When can we expect the next stock split?

None of the above have announced a stock split yet. In fact, Amazon’s last stock split was in September 1999, and it took the company eight years to get its stock price up to similar levels after that. Now that downturn probably didn’t have anything to do with the actual stock split, as it coincided with the dot-com crash. But still, it might have made the company wary to jump into the stock split game again.

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Booking’s last stock split was also in the previous century, in 1998 to be precise. Alphabet’s last stock split was a bit more recent, in 2014. Both MercadoLibre and Shopify have never done a stock split before, so they won’t take such a step lightly either.

How common are stock splits?

Stock splits are rare, especially when compared to the 90s for instance. Back then, you could expect between 70 and 180 stock splits per year, whereas in the 2010s and 2020s that figure has dropped to a maximum of 20 per year.

So there you have it. If you’re waiting for the next big tech stock split to make a buck on, don’t necessarily hold your breath, but if you do, know that they don’t change the fundamentals of a company. It’s mainly the speculation around it that’s driving its accompanying moves.

Story byYaron Yitzhak

Yaron is a Data Analyst & Audience Developer at TNW. He also enjoys writing stories on the intersection of finance and technology, and e(show all)Yaron is a Data Analyst & Audience Developer at TNW. He also enjoys writing stories on the intersection of finance and technology, and explainers on how to work with data even if you don’t have advanced technical skills.

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