Microsoft Share Price Stays Ahead of Split Thresholds

Microsoft's last stock split was a 2-for-1 split in February 2003, its ninth since going public in 1986. The company's board rarely lets the share price go near its record close of $542 set last October, but Microsoft's current price of around $518 is modest compared to peers like Nvidia, Broadcom, and Netflix that have recently announced 10-for-1 splits.

Microsoft hasn't announced any plan to split its shares again, but some investors might be wondering if a 10th split could be on the horizon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is price-weighted, so Microsoft's share price of around $518 gives it one of the index's biggest weights. A 2-for-1 split would lower that weight to about 3%, while a 10-for-1 split like Nvidia's might send Microsoft close to the bottom of the index.

The board has let the shares trade over all of its earlier split prices for most of the last six years, and if the old pattern still held, it's likely that they would have split the shares again. However, a split wouldn't change what buyers pay for the business, which is currently priced around 30 times adjusted earnings.