Chapter 19 – Using Securities Markets for Financing and Investing Opportunities
19-75
STOCK SPLITS
19-39
LO 19-6
• Stock Splits — An action by a company that gives
stockholders two or more shares of additional stock
for every share that they own.
• Splits cause no change in the firm’s ownership
structure and no change in the investment’s
value.
• Firms can never be forced to spilt their stocks.
1. An important point to note is investment value does
not change immediately after the stock split. The in-
vestor has the same original dollar value as before the
split. The hope for the investor is that the lower price
will cause the demand for the stock to increase, raising
the stock price (which will increase their total invest-
ment value since they have more shares due to the
stock split).
2. Dividend rates are also divided according to the degree
of split.
3. Most stock splits are two-for-one splits.
4. Since 1975, Wal-Mart has split their shares on eight
different occasions. If an individual investor pur-
chased 100 shares in 1980 they would own 25,600
shares after adjusting for splits!
PPT 19-40
Buying Stock on Margin
• Buying Stock on Margin — Borrowing some of the
stock
’
s purchase cost from the brokerage firm.
BUYING STOCK on MARGIN
19-40
LO 19-6
• Margin is the portion of the
stock’s purchase price that
the investor must pay with
their own money.
• If a broker issues a margin
call, the investor has to
come up with money to
cover losses.
Investors purchasing on margin are increasing their pur-
chasing power, so they can own more stock without fully
paying for it.
Students should know the risk associated with buying
stocks on margin. Margin exposes investors to the follow-
ing risks:
• You can lose more money than you invested.
• You may have to deposit additional cash or securi-
ties in your account on short notice to cover market
losses.
• You may be forced to sell some or all of your secu-
rities when falling stock prices reduce the value of
your securities.
• Your brokerage firm may sell some or all of your
securities without consulting you to pay off the loan
it made to you.
• Know that your firm charges you interest for bor-
rowing money, which will affect the total return on
your investments.