Stock splits are far less common than 20 or 30 years ago. During the tech and internet bubble of the late 1990s, stock splits were common. David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, noted that roughly 15% of Russell 1000 firms split their stock each year in the late 1990s, but that proved to be an anomaly.
By the mid-2000s, only roughly 5% of the Russell 1000 members split their stock each year, and after the great financial crisis in 2008-2009, stock splits practically ceased.The likely reason is the institutional base for stock ownership has come to dominate the market. Institutional investors invest by dollar value, not by shares. They would typically buy, say, $10 million in stock and don't care what the price is.
But recently, there are signs of a subtle shift. Some of it may be because the price of some stocks reached absurd levels. Chipotle, for example, has never split its stock and is trading over $3,200 and will soon split 50-for-1. Nvidia was over $1,200 by the time it split 10-for-1.Nvidia noted that the
was to "make stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors." Chipotle said the same thing.announcing the split: "The stock split is part of Walmart's ongoing review of optimal trading and spread levels and its desire for its associates to feel that purchasing shares is easily within reach.However, many academic studies have noted various changes in trading patterns for stocks that split, though these changes are not uniform.
However, if corporate America smells that there is a trend and can attract attention by splitting stocks, retail-facing companies with much lower price profiles may also become candidates.