As of yesterday’s market close, Netflix is the only Big Tech company whose stock is trading at four figures, but that will soon change.
The TV streaming giant, whose shares closed at $1,089 on Thursday, has announced that it will initiate a stock split next month. That will send the stock’s price per share much lower, though it will not change the company’s fundamental value.
Here’s what you need to know about Netflix’s upcoming stock split.
What’s a stock split?
A stock split is when a company decides to divide the number of its existing shares in order to create new ones—hence the term “split” the shares.
A stock can split by any factor a company wants. For example, in a 2-for-1 stock split, for every one share of the stock pre-split, there will be two shares post-split. Or in a 100-to-1 stock split, for every one share pre-split, there would be 99 additional shares post-split.
However, because new shares are being created in a stock split, the value of the stock is diluted by an amount commensurate with the split.
Take a 100-to-1 stock split of the imaginary Company XYZ. If the share price of Company XYZ was $1,000 before the split, its new share price would be $10 after the split ($1000/100).
Yet even though Company XYZ’s stock price is now 100 times cheaper, the company itself isn’t worth less. A company’s value—its market cap—is determined by adding up the total value of all its shares.
How much is Netflix spitting the stock by?
Netflix has said that it will split its shares by a ratio of 10-to-1 next month. This means that for every one share of Netflix stock (Nasdaq: NFLX) that exists today, there will be another nine NFLX shares in existence after the split.
Netflix is by far the only major company to split its stock in recent years.
In 2024, Walmart split its stock 3-to-1. In 2022, Amazon split its stock 20-to-1 and Tesla split its stock 3-to-1. And in 2020, Apple split its stock 4-to-1.
More recently, this week, there have been rumors that Palantir Technologies may soon split its stock.
When do Netflix’s shares split?
There are several dates to keep in mind when it comes to Netflix’s upcoming stock split.
The most important day is Monday, November 17, 2025. This is when NFLX shares will begin trading at their new post-split price on the Nasdaq. On this day, there will be 10 times more NFLX shares in existence than there are today.
Another important date is Friday, November 14, 2025. This is the day that each shareholder of record will receive nine additional shares for every one share of Netflix they own as of the “record date.” They will receive these additional nine shares after the markets close on November 14.
The final date to remember is Monday, November 10, 2025. This is the “record date.” Only shareholders who own NFLX shares after market close on this date will receive nine additional shares on November 14 for every one they own after market close on the 10th..
What does this mean for investors and Netflix’s share price?
Netflix’s 10-for-1 stock split means that, come Monday, November 17, NFLX shares will trade at 10 times less than their closing price on Friday, November 14.
However, as explained above, this does not mean that Netflix will be worth 10 times less, because there will also be 10 times as many shares in existence.
This also does not mean investors of record will see the total value of their NFLX shares decrease. Though the individual share price will be 10 times lower, investors of record will also have 10 times the number of shares that they previously did.
So why is Netflix splitting its stock then?
Stock splits have no effect on the fundamental finances or valuation of a company.
But stock splits can have a powerful psychological effect on investors, particularly retail investors. Big institutional investors, like investment banks and hedge funds, buy stocks in dollar amounts—$5 million or $100 million worth of shares in a single company at a time, for example.
But retail investors often buy shares based on the stock’s individual share price. And a single share priced at more than $1,000 often puts that stock out of reach for retail investors, who may just have a few hundred dollars to invest each month.
By artificially lowering its stock price through a stock split, a company can make its shares more attractive and accessible to retail investors, which could actually help drive up the share price as more people buy into the stock at its lower price.
But making a stock more attractive to retail investors isn’t the only reason why companies split their stocks.
Another reason is to make the company’s shares more accessible to its employees, who can often buy shares via an employee stock purchase program. If a company’s stock price is too high, employees may not even be able to afford one share per month. A lower share price can make it so that more employees can buy into the company.
Indeed, the employee factor is the main reason Netflix cited for its stock split.
“The purpose of the stock split is to reset the market price of the Company’s common stock to a range that will be more accessible to employees who participate in the Company’s stock option program,” the company said when announcing the split on October 30.
