After much anticipation, CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) has seen its share price soar past the $100 level, currently trading at around $100.89.
It's not the first stock trading on the ASX to reach the $100 mark, with the company already reaching that mark in 2007. In August 2007, CSL announced a 3 for 1 share split, with previous CEO Brian McNamee announcing, "The Board is also pleased to advise that it is proposing to seek shareholder approval for a three for one share split of the company's ordinary shares. The Board believes this will improve the affordability and liquidity of the company's shares for retail shareholders."
Will CSL again split it shares?
A 3 for 1 share split means that shareholders will see each share become three and each share should theoretically be priced at 33.33% of the last non-split previous price. Each shareholder will still hold the same amount of CSL as they did before the share split. Think of it like a slice of pizza cut into three pieces. There are no laws or rules that dictate what CSL should do – the company could split each share into 100 if it wanted to.
In the US, some companies have share prices over US$1,000 while more than 200 in the Russell 1000 Index have share prices over US$100. CSL may feel that $100 share price is 'affordable' for retail shareholders and with more than 473 million shares on issue, liquidity doesn't appear to be an issue either.
You could toss a coin either way to see if CSL will split its shares this time.
