Amazon Stock Split: 3 Companies That Should Follow Suit

Amazon recently announced a stock split, its first since 1999. And the stock has been rising, up hundreds of dollars since the company released the news. When there's a stock split, your investment's overall value doesn't change -- only the number of shares and the new share price. The benefit of a stock split is that it can make a high-priced stock feel more accessible, especially to investors who can't or don't want to buy fractional shares.

A stock split also puts a company into the news for positive reasons -- namely that its business is doing well and its share price has risen enough where a split makes sense; you wouldn't expect to see a stock split from a company whose shares are trading at just $100. Tesla and Apple both deployed stock splits last year, and both benefited from a surge in trading activity upon doing so, as the chart shows.