Amazon on Wednesday unveiled plans for its first stock split since September 1999.
Amazon stock is about to get a lot cheaper after the company announced a 20-for-1 stock split this week. The tech giant on Wednesday unveiled plans for the split — its first since September 1999 — only a month after Google parent Alphabet said it would do its own 20-for-1 split. The announcement sent Amazon shares up more than 6% in intraday trading Thursday, to more than $2,900 each. Stock splits usually happen when the price of a company’s shares has gotten very high. In a stock split, a company divides up its shares to lower their price and increase the overall amount of shares available. In Amazon’s case, existing shareholders will receive 19 additional shares for every share they already own.
