Despite all the attention artificial intelligence (AI) has garnered on Wall Street, it's stock-split euphoria that's been giving AI a run for its money in 2024.

A stock split marks an event that allows publicly traded companies to cosmetically alter their share price and outstanding share count. It's superficial in the sense that adjusting a company's share price and share count by the same magnitude has no impact on its market cap, and doesn't affect its underlying operating performance.

Splits comes in two varieties, with investors favoring one far more than the other. Reverse-stock splits are designed to increase a company's share price, usually with the goal of ensuring continued listing on a major stock exchange. Meanwhile, forward-stock splits reduce a company's nominal share price. The purpose of forward splits is to make shares more "affordable" for investors who lack access to fractional-share purchases with their broker.

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Source Fool.com