Last week was a great one for the S 500, with the index scoring its best weekly performance of the year. And two stocks participating in these gains are ones that could drive the index higher in the near term and over time. These companies have shown their strength in the past, with earnings and share price soaring. In fact, both players actually completed stock splits last year to bring their share prices back down to earth -- and make them more accessible to a broader range of investors.

In a stock split, a company issues additional shares to current investors to lower the individual price -- but this doesn't change the total market value of the company. Stock splits often are a sign a company has done well in the past and is confident in its ability to drive more share gains moving forward.

So, which stock-split companies are helping the S 500 rally? None other than Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), an e-commerce and cloud computing giant, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), parent company of search powerhouse Google. Let's take a closer look at these stock-split players to buy now.

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Source Fool.com