Despite bear market chatter and meme-stock fervor garnering their fair share of headlines, it's stock-split mania that's gripped the attention of the investing community in 2022.
Stock splits provide a way for publicly traded companies to alter their share prices and outstanding share counts without having an impact on their market caps or operating performances. A forward stock split lowers the share price of a public company, which makes it nominally more affordable for retail investors who might not have access to fractional-share investing.
Image source: Getty Images.
More importantly, stock splits are viewed as a sign of strength. Think of it this way: A company's share price wouldn't be high enough to consider a split if it wasn't executing on its business strategy and/or out-innovating its competition.
Well over a half-dozen high-profile companies have announced or enacted stock splits this year. But a small group of these stocks stands head and shoulders above their peers. What follows are three stock-split stocks you can confidently buy right now and hold on to forever.
Alphabet
The first stock-split stock that's an ideal buy-and-hold-forever candidate is Alphabet (GOOGL 1.27%) (GOOG 1.25%), the parent of internet search engine Google and streaming platform YouTube.
In February, Alphabet announced plans to enact a 20-for-1 forward stock split, which has since been approved by shareholders. When enacted in mid-July, it'll drop Alphabet's share price to around $118, relative to its nearly $2,360 closing price (for the Class A shares, GOOGL) this past week. In turn, the company's outstanding share count will increase by a factor of 20.
What's made Alphabet such an attractive stock to hang on to is its foundational search-engine segment. Over the past two decades, Google has practically become a monopoly. Data from GlobalStats shows that Google has controlled between 91% and 93% of worldwide internet search over the trailing 24 months. Advertisers are well aware that their best chance to get their message in front of users is to market with Google. And Alphabet understands it has exceptional pricing power thanks to its near-monopoly status in internet search.
Although ad revenue from internet search offers a fairly sustained low double-digit growth opportunity for Alphabet, it's just one piece of the company's really exciting puzzle. For instance, YouTube is the second-most-visited social media platform on the planet, with 2.56 billion monthly active users. As you can imagine, this has helped lift ad revenue and subscriptions for YouTube.
Arguably even more exciting is Alphabet's cloud infrastructure services segment. Google Cloud is currently the global No. 3 in cloud-service market share and has consistently grown revenue by 40% to 50% on an annual basis. Cloud infrastructure still looks to be in its early innings, which should provide a long runway of opportunity for parent Alphabet to grow its operating cash flow.
With no shortage of competitive advantages, Alphabet shouldn't have any trouble rewarding patient investors.
DexCom
A second stock-split stock that investors can add to their portfolios without any intention of ever selling is continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system producer DexCom (DXCM 1.89%).
In late March, DexCom's board of directors announced it had approved a 4-for-1 stock split, which was subsequently given the green light by shareholders during the company's 2022 annual stockholder meeting in May. On June 10, this forward split became effective, with shares of DexCom ending last week below $78 a share. For context, shares were changing hands at a pre-split peak of $659 in November.
The beauty of healthcare stocks is that they're incredibly defensive. No matter how well or poorly the U.S. economy and stock market perform, people are always going to require prescription drugs, medical devices, and healthcare services. Just because Wall Street or the U.S. economy runs into a rough patch, it doesn't mean people stop getting sick. This provides a level of demand safety that most other sectors and industries can't match.
To add to this stability, DexCom is helping to combat a disease that continues to worsen as time passes. The latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 37.3 million Americans have diabetes (8.6 million of which are undiagnosed). Furthermore, 96 million U.S. adults are estimated to have pre-diabetes, which can lead to diabetes if left untreated. That's nearly half the adult population in the U.S. with diabetes or pre-diabetes, and it's a mammoth opportunity for DexCom's CGM systems.
DexCom has been the global No. 1 or No. 2 CGM producer for years. Though the DexCom G7 CGM System will drive its double-digit organic sales growth for the foreseeable future, multiple variations have preceded the G7. In other words, ongoing innovation is what continues to drive significant market share for DexCom.
What's more, DexCom is built as a high-margin razor-and-blades operating model. Diabetic patients purchase the hardware (the "razor") they'll use to read their blood-glucose levels and buy high-margin replacement sensors (the "blades") that monitor and transmit blood sugar levels to hardware devices. It's the perfect setup to realize operating margin expansion over time.
Image source: Amazon.
Amazon
The third and final stock-split stock of 2022 that you can confidently buy and hold forever is yet another FAANG stock, Amazon (AMZN 1.30%).
In March, Amazon made the announcement that it would ride Alphabet's coattails and enact a 20-for-1 stock split. On June 6, this split went into effect. The company, whose shares traded for north of $3,700 as recently as November, closed this past week at a split-adjusted $116.46.
Most investors are probably familiar with Amazon because of its leading online marketplace. According to a March report from eMarketer, Amazon is expected to account for 39.5% of all U.S. online retail sales in 2022. The 14 companies immediately behind it are only expected to account for 31% of U.S. online retail share on a combined basis. That's how far ahead of the competition Amazon is with its e-commerce marketplace.
However, the real value of this online marketplace isn't found in aggregate retail sales. Rather, it's the 200 million Prime subscribers Amazon has signed up globally. The annual fees collected from Prime members provide tens of billions of dollars in revenue for the company's logistics network and allows Amazon to undercut brick-and-mortar competitors on price.
What investors might not realize about Amazon is that its ancillary sales channels (i.e., non-retail) are what drive the bulk of its operating cash flow. Even if online retail sales soften, higher-margin sales channels such as advertising, subscription services, and cloud services are capable of fueling virtually all of the company's profit and cash flow growth.
Speaking of cloud services, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the global kingpin. It accounts for a third of worldwide cloud infrastructure spending, according to estimates from Canalys, and has been growing sales by north of 30% on an annual basis.
Throughout the 2010s, Wall Street and investors willingly paid a multiple of 23 to 37 times Amazon's year-end operating cash flow to own this stock. But thanks to AWS, Prime, and advertising, Amazon's operating cash flow could more than double by mid-decade, which would drop its operating cash flow multiple to about 9. That's quite the bargain for a company with as many competitive advantages as Amazon.
