The stock market remained volatile on Wednesday, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -0.64%) wasn't able to escape the downward pressure. After rising near the open, the Nasdaq was down nearly 1% as of 1 p.m. ET.
However, some stocks on the Nasdaq did reasonably well. Amazon.com (AMZN -1.65%) rose as investors look forward to the completion of its long-anticipated stock split later this week. However, a much smaller company had a larger percentage move higher on Wednesday, and shareholders liked the confidence that it expressed in its business prospects looking forward. Read on to learn more about Amazon's stock split and to find out the name of the top-moving stock.
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Amazon gets ready
Shares of Amazon.com were up almost 1% on Wednesday. The e-commerce and cloud computing services giant has seen a lot of volatility in its share price lately, but the long-awaited stock split that shareholders have wanted to see is nearly here.
Amazon held a special meeting late last week, and investors in the company overwhelmingly voted in favor of completing a 20-for-1 stock split. Nearly 425 million votes supported the stock split, compared to just 1.1 million voting against.
The new shares will get distributed after the close of business on Friday, June 3. That means that the stock will start trading on a post-split basis the following Monday, June 6. At that point, the stock price should be roughly 1/20th of what it was before the split, which would imply a post-split share price of around $121 based on today's levels of $2,425.
From a fundamental standpoint, the stock split will have no impact at all on Amazon's business. However, investors often interpret stock splits as signs of confidence in a company's future prospects, and so it's not surprising to see the share price move higher in the days leading up to the split.
Rimini likes its stock
However, a bigger winner on the Nasdaq was Rimini Street (RMNI). The enterprise software support provider made a shareholder-friendly move that builds on the recent bounce in its stock over the past few months.
Rimini said that it had increased its previously announced stock repurchase program, going from its old $15 million authorization to a new $50 million authorization. Rimini gave itself four years to make the repurchases under the new program.
In addition, Rimini made a prepayment on its outstanding debt on its term loan, using $5 million of its cash to reduce its debt load. The amendment to Rimini's credit limit increased the amount of money it could use on stock buybacks.
Rimini has generated considerable operating cash flow recently, leaving it with a record level of cash on its balance sheet. In an effort to enhance shareholder value, the Rimini board thought it was prudent to boost the buyback.
Rimini was one of many companies that went public through a special purpose acquisition company recently, and its stock price fell afterward. However, the shares are moving higher now, and some see Rimini as having considerable potential for future gains as the rising number of software packages on the market makes its third-party support more valuable.
