What is a split? I'm looking at the history of one of my stocks and I can toggle the view to "split."

Answer 1

a split is where you have now-after the split-twice as many shares-and the price of the stock is halved, this is to increase the amount of shares outstanding. This is sometimes done by companies who do not wish to "float" more shares-as in a secondary offering, as a thank you to their shareholders too. Burger, mine is correct in every way-and maybe even the following is correct also-not in exact terms, dividend, per se-but a thank you-by an offering by the company to offer more shares to the "already holding" shareholder (keeping it in the family)-as they DO split the stock for the lowering of such a stock price to INDUCE more buyers, by making it more available to the general public by having a lower price-and moreover, do such in a way-by way of spilt-instead of offering more shares to the public-reward their shareholders by splitting, as a thank you, instead. Burger, nice effort in repeating what I said, then stating the obvious to appear more knowledgeable. Yes, there can be a 3 for 2 split, but I feel the asking questioner wanted to understand the concept of split, which you didn't even touch upon as to the more than just lowering price -why. There are also reverse splits too-not good-unless it pushes the price to a level making it elgible for listing on a more widely traded board.

Answer 2

Both of the above answers are not exactly correct although they made a good effort. A stock split is exactly that: for instance a company may feel that the stock price has gone so high, like $200 dollars per share that they could attract more interest if it took less to invest in the company. So the company could declare a "2 for one split" thus if you had one share previously worth $200 dollars, the holder would now have 2 shares, each one being worth $100.
So when you are looking at a history of the stock, you have to take into account any stock splits that may have occurred or it would be misleading to anyone reading the information.
It is not a dividend-it is divided by whatever it is worth.
Also, it does not have to be a(and often isn't a "2 for 1") A company can declare a "3 for 2" or any other combination.

Answer 3

A stock split is a stock dividend that is paid in stock. It has the advantage in that it is not a taxable event like a cash dividend is.