Key Points
-
Artificial intelligence has driven a powerful technology rally, while enthusiasm for forward stock splits has further supported Wall Street.
-
Meta Platforms has a high per-share price, meaningful retail ownership and is increasingly incorporating AI into its advertising products.
-
Micron Technology is seeing demand for AI data-center memory exceed supply, with its shares gaining more than 1,100% over 16 months and orders extending into 2027.
Artificial intelligence has been the market’s dominant theme for several years, but stock-split enthusiasm has also contributed to the broader rally. A forward split lowers the nominal price of each share without changing a company’s underlying value, making ownership appear more accessible to retail investors. Companies that announce splits have often attracted renewed attention from individual investors.
Two of Wall Street’s most prominent trillion-dollar companies may be well positioned for their next split. The question is whether the boards of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) will act.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meta Platforms could make history among the Magnificent Seven
Meta Platforms is the only member of the Magnificent Seven that has never completed a stock split. Although fractional-share investing has become more common and reduced the practical need for splits, Meta’s share price of roughly $617 may still discourage some individual investors from buying even a small number of shares.
Retail investors hold nearly 30% of the company’s outstanding shares. Because institutional investors do not require a lower nominal share price, a high level of noninstitutional ownership can increase pressure for a forward split.
The investment case extends beyond the share price. Meta’s family of apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Threads, attracted 3.6 billion daily active users in June. With no rival social network close to that scale, Meta remains an attractive advertising platform.
Meta has also integrated AI into its advertising tools. Generative AI gives advertisers the ability to customize static and video messages for individual users. If these features improve click-through rates, they could further support Meta’s premium advertising prices.
Image source: Getty Images.
Micron Technology hasn’t approved a split since 2000
From a share-price perspective, Micron may be an even more likely split candidate than Meta. The stock finished the Labor Day weekend near $1,017 per share, while everyday investors held more than 26% of its outstanding shares. That level of retail ownership could make a board decision particularly relevant, especially because Micron has not approved a stock split since 2000.
The strongest potential catalyst is the belief that Micron’s share price could continue higher. The company’s shares have risen more than 1,100% over the trailing 16 months as demand has surged for memory used in AI-accelerated data centers.
Micron’s high-bandwidth memory is packaged with graphics processing units, enabling extremely fast data transfer speeds. That capability is essential for software and systems that must make decisions in fractions of a second.
Demand for high-bandwidth memory far exceeds available supply, giving Micron significant pricing power and a backlog booked more than a year in advance. Memory markets are highly cyclical and can become commoditized, but contracts extending through 2027 suggest that Micron’s revenue and profit growth may continue for the foreseeable future.
