History of Apple's Stock Splits

Apple's stock has split five times since its IPO -- what does that mean for investors?

By Adam Levy – Updated Dec 10, 2024 at 8:49PM

Key Points

Since its 1980 IPO, Apple has had five stock splits to adjust share prices for management and repurchases.
Stock splits do not change Apple's market cap but have historically increased investor interest and short-term prices.
Despite stock splits, Apple's long-term stock value mainly reflects its sustained growth in sales and profitability.
Investor Alert: Our 10 best stocks to buy right now ›

Key findings are powered by ChatGPT and based solely off the content from this article. Findings are reviewed by our editorial team. The author and editors take ultimate responsibility for the content.

Stock splits can stir up a lot of investor excitement. Apple (AAPL 0.68%) is a perfect example. Since the tech hardware leader went public more than 40 years ago, Apple has split its shares five times and created massive shareholder wealth.

Stock Split

A multiplying or dividing of a company's outstanding share count that doesn't change its overall market value or capitalization.

Split history

Apple's stock split history

Apple is one of the world's most valuable companies, with a current market cap of more than $3.7 trillion in late 2024. Its initial public offering (IPO) was on Dec. 12, 1980. The IPO price was $22, or $0.10 per share when adjusting for the five stock splits it has initiated in its history as a public company.

A timeline from 1980-2020 showing the history of Apple stock, including price changes and product releases.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Some investors get excited about stock splits because they believe they make the stock cheaper. A stock split occurs when the company issues new shares, and as a result, the price of each share goes down.

But the valuation usually remains unchanged since the decrease in stock price and increase in shares outstanding usually offset each other. There's no change to a company's market capitalization or enterprise value.

Nevertheless, some investors think the split increases investor attention and causes the share price to rise before and after a stock split. Here's what Apple's history tells us regarding this belief.

Timeline

Apple stock splits: 1980 to 2023

Apple has endured some tumultuous times, especially in its first two decades as a publicly traded stock. For the 20 years after its 1980 IPO, the share price had only doubled in value through Dec. 31, 2000.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Much like the stock splits in Apple's early history, the company's stock splits in the 2000s and later were preceded by a run-up in stock price. Performance in the year after the split was respectable, too. After another 2-for-1 split in 2005, Apple divided its last two splits by larger amounts in 2014 and 2020.

Data sources: Apple and YCharts.
Stock Split Date	Stock Split	Apple Market Cap	Stock One-Year % Return Prior to Split	Stock One-Year % Return After Split
June 16, 1987	2-for-1	$5 billion	131%	7%
June 21, 2000	2-for-1	$18 billion	140%	(60%)
Feb. 28, 2005	2-for-1	$37 billion	275%	53%
June 9, 2014	7-for-1	$565 billion	49%	36%
Aug. 28, 2020	4-for-1	$2.1 trillion	139%	19%

Lessons learned

Lessons from Apple's stock split history

Apple's history of stock splits shows that the hype leading up to the new shares being doled out to shareholders is greater than the event itself. Apple's share price performance in the year after a split is a bit more of a mixed bag.

However, more important than Apple’s stock splits is the business’s performance. Each time the tech hardware designer has split its stock, it has experienced strong growth in sales and profitability. The exception was in 2000 when sales dipped between the dot-com bust and the release of the iPod in 2002.