Netflix Stock Is About To Get A Lot Cheaper
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Whenever those lists come out about stocks due for a stock split, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is typically on them.
The streaming leader has been trading at more than $1,000 per share for most of the year, give or take a few dips below $1,000 per share in the spring.
Since its last stock split in 2015, Netflix stock has been on a rocket ship, coinciding with the shift away from cable TV to streaming. Over the past 10 years, Netflix stock has had an average annualized return of 26% per year.
This year, Netflix stock is right at that number, up 26% year-to-date, trading at around $1,122 per share. But soon, investors will be able to buy Netflix stock at a much lower entry price.
On Thursday, the company announced a 10-for-1 stock split, meaning that each share of Netflix will be split into 10.
Why is Netflix doing a stock split?
Companies typically do stock splits when their share price gets too lofty. Last year, the big one was Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), which did a 10-for-1 stock split in June that brought the share price down from around $1,200 to around $120 per share.
While it doesn’t change the actual value of the stock, it allows investors to own more shares of a stock than they did before. Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO) also did a 10-for-1 split last year, while Chipotle (Nasdaq: CMG) did a 50-for-1 split. Other recent big name stock splits include a 3-for-1 split by Walmart (NYSE: WMT) in 2024 and 20-for-1 splits by both Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) in 2022.
With Netflix, the 10-for-1 split should bring the stock price down to $110 to $120 per share, depending on its share price when the split takes effect on November 17.
Each Netflix shareholder as of the closing bell on November 10 will receive, after the close of trading on November 14, nine additional shares for every share held. Trading is expected to begin on a split-adjusted basis on November 17.
Netflix officials said the purpose of the stock split is to “reset the market price of the company’s common stock to a range that will be more accessible to employees who participate in the company’s stock option program.”
While it’s not always the case, a stock split like this can boost the stock price, as more investors buy in, wanting to get the additional shares at a lower price. That seemed to be happening on Friday, as Netflix shares were up about 3% on the day.
Looking ahead, there are some new prime candidates for stock splits, namely Booking (Nasdaq: BKNG) trading at over $5,000 per share, AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) at over $3,600 per share, and BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) at around $1,100 per share, to name a few.
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