Modern investing has made buying into great companies more accessible than ever, particularly with so many brokerages offering fractional shares. Another way that high-flying stocks can become more accessible to the average investor is through stock splits.
A stock split doesn't add value for existing investors, but rather divides their holdings up into more shares at correspondingly lower prices. So a split can also make a stock more palatable for investors with more-moderate capital.
As always, share price alone shouldn't affect your choices one way or the other. The underlying business and how it fits your portfolio's objectives are what matter. If you have $1,000 to put into the market right now, here are two companies that recently underwent stock splits to consider holding for years.
1. DexCom
DexCom (DXCM 1.41%) executed a 4-for-1 split on May 19 of last year. The diabetes-care specialist had a banner 2022 with stunning revenue growth and profits. It also marked a significant win just before the start of the new year with approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its G7 continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device, the latest generation of its flagship product. Distribution is now underway in the U.S. and in markets including Europe and Asia.
DexCom significantly augmented its CGM user base in 2022, closing the year with 1.7 million active users globally, an increase of 450,000 from the end of 2021. Revenue was $3 billion in 2022, with earnings at $341 million for the full year -- approximate increases of 20% and 60%, respectively, from 2021.
NASDAQ: DXCM
Key Data Points
Several factors are driving the continued adoption of CGMs and the growth of their total addressable market. In some cases, they can make a life-saving difference for the wearers. The expansion of insurance coverage for CGMs -- with DexCom products remaining the most-covered on the market -- and the rising incidence of diabetes worldwide are two other key catalysts.
What's more, the potential addressable market for CGM wearers is still heavily underpenetrated, with some estimates showing that only up to 4% of individuals in the U.S. with Type 2 diabetes, the most commonly diagnosed form of the disease, now wear these devices. Moreover, beyond Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics, there are potential uses even for pre-diabetics.
The growth runway for DexCom isn't anywhere close to ended, which is good news for the business and could make it a particularly compelling choice for long-term investors.
2. Alphabet
Alphabet (GOOGL +1.31%) (GOOG +1.09%) executed a 20-for-1 stock split on July 1 of last year. The company has an impressive record of rewarding long-term investors, with a total return of 250% to 260% over the past decade (depending on whether you own class A or class C shares).
Its top and bottom lines have grown 409% and 371%, respectively, in that same 10-year period. Even so, the fluctuating sentiment around growth and tech stocks, as well as the constrained ad spending environment, has perhaps made some investors wary of the company.
And with the launch of Microsoft's new-and-improved Bing search engine incorporating ChatGPT, there seems to be some concern about Alphabet's long-term sway over the search engine market, a multibillion-dollar space in which its Google has long been the indomitable leader.
The current economy has forced companies to pull back on ad spending. But this isn't a long-term trend, and ad spending will recover. Few brands today can survive without a robust, consistent digital presence.
Roughly half of all ad spending globally is controlled by Alphabet and fellow tech giant Meta Platforms. Alphabet also continues to see steady growth in its cloud infrastructure business, Google Cloud, and has about an 11% share of this multibillion-dollar market at the time of this writing.
NASDAQ: GOOGL
Key Data Points
Google has roughly 85% of the global search engine market; Microsoft's Bing controls about 9%. Alphabet recently executed a somewhat bumpy launch for Bard, its own competitor to ChatGPT, at a time when AI promises to revolutionize a range of industries including the search engine space.
This stumble doesn't mean that the Sun has set on the tech giant. AI-based tools are far from perfect, and Bard is still a work in progress. While the search market could change in the future, it doesn't mean that Google can't adapt to AI, something Alphabet is already working on with the rollout of Bard.
The company has other fast-growing businesses to rely on, too, including its cloud segment and YouTube. Revenue totaled $283 billion and earnings reached $60 billion in 2022, with cash and investments on its balance sheet of $114 billion.
Alphabet offers investors with a multi-year investment horizon, an established name with a tremendous global footprint, and a long history of profitability. And that sets it up to continue to seize market share as its toolkit of services and technologies evolves to keep pace with the digital age. The stock still looks like an intriguing buy, particularly at its currently discounted price.
