how much was amazon stock before the split

How much was Amazon stock before the split

Quick answer: If you are asking "how much was amazon stock before the split", the answer depends on which split you mean. Amazon completed splits in 1998, twice in 1999, and a 20-for-1 split in 2022. Immediately before the June 2022 20-for-1 split Amazon shares were trading in the multi‑thousand‑dollar range (examples cited around $2,700–$2,800 per share pre-split), while prices before the 1998–1999 splits were in the low hundreds. This article lists the pre-split closing prices, explains split-adjusted vs nominal prices, shows the cumulative effect of all splits, and explains how to verify exact historical quotes.

Note: the phrase "how much was amazon stock before the split" appears throughout this guide to match common user queries and to make it easy to find the exact pre-split figures you need.

Background — Amazon stock splits (overview)

Stock splits are corporate actions that increase the number of outstanding shares while proportionally reducing the per-share price, leaving company value (market capitalization) unchanged. Investors commonly encounter the question "how much was amazon stock before the split" when they read historical charts or try to translate historical holdings to today’s share counts.

Amazon.com, Inc. (ticker: AMZN) has completed four splits since its IPO:

• 2-for-1 on 1998-06-02
• 3-for-1 on 1999-01-05
• 2-for-1 on 1999-09-02
• 20-for-1 on 2022-06-06 (trading on a split-adjusted basis began June 6, 2022)

The 1998–1999 splits occurred during the dot-com era and used relatively small ratios (2x and 3x). The 2022 split was a large 20-for-1 split intended to make individual shares more affordable and increase liquidity after years of share-price appreciation.

Sources: historical split listings and corporate announcements, financial data providers.

Pre-split prices — key splits and prices immediately before each event

Below are the reported closing prices immediately before each split event. These are nominal pre-split prices on the business day prior to the split (not adjusted for later splits unless otherwise noted).

2022 — 20-for-1 split (June 6, 2022)

As of March 30, 2022, Amazon announced a 20-for-1 stock split, to be effective with a distribution record and an adjusted trading date in early June 2022. As of June 3, 2022 (the record/distribution period), reporting cited pre-split prices in the multi‑thousand‑dollar range.

• Example reported pre-split closing figure: $2,785.58 (cited by major financial reporting at the time of the announcement). Dividing that by 20 gives a direct split-adjusted per-share equivalent of about $139.28.

Immediately after the split, on the first trading day priced on a split-adjusted basis (June 6, 2022), reported traded prices opened and traded in the roughly $120–$125 range on that first split-adjusted day, reflecting market moves around the event.

(As of March 30, 2022, Investopedia and major outlets covered the announced 20-for-1 split and related pre-split prices; as of June 3, 2022, CNBC and contemporaneous reporting supplied sample pre-split figures.)

1999 and 1998 splits (1998–1999 dot-com era)

Earlier splits were much smaller in ratio and had lower nominal pre-split prices. Reported pre-split nominal closing prices immediately before those splits include:

• 2-for-1 on 1998-06-02 — price before split: $85.68 (close on 1998-06-01 reported)
• 3-for-1 on 1999-01-05 — price before split: $354.96 (close on 1999-01-04 reported)
• 2-for-1 on 1999-09-02 — price before split: $119.06 (close on 1999-09-01 reported)

These figures are historical nominal quotes on the days immediately preceding each split and reflect the market prices at those times.

Source: split history tables and historical price records compiled by financial data providers.

Cumulative effect — how many shares / adjusted price today

If you hold one Amazon share from before the 1998–1999 splits and the 2022 split, the total cumulative share multiple is the product of all split ratios:

• 2 × 3 × 2 × 20 = 240

That means one pre-1998 share would become 240 shares after the 2022 split. Put another way, historical per-share figures before 1998 should be multiplied by 1/240 to express an equivalent per-share price after all splits. For example, an IPO nominal price of $18 would be roughly equivalent to $0.075 per current share after accounting for all splits (18 / 240).

This cumulative factor is helpful when converting old per-share values to modern per-share equivalents or when reconstructing holdings over long time spans.

Source: cumulative split listings compiled by market data aggregators.

Understanding split-adjusted vs. nominal historical prices

When you ask "how much was amazon stock before the split", you'll see two types of historical price series:

• Nominal (raw) historical prices: the quoted trading prices on the calendar date (these do not retroactively change when a new split occurs). If a chart shows a $2,785.58 close on March 30, 2022, that is a nominal pre-split figure.
• Split-adjusted historical prices: data providers adjust older prices to reflect later splits so that long-term charts show continuous price series without sudden jumps that are purely from splits. For example, a long-term chart adjusted for the 2022 split will show pre-2022 prices divided by 20 so that the price series is comparable across time.

Why it matters:

• If you want the actual traded price the day before a split, use nominal historical quotes (unadjusted). That answers "how much was amazon stock before the split" literally.
• If you are comparing performance across decades or calculating returns, use split-adjusted data so that splits don't distort percentage changes.

Reliable places to find and choose between adjusted and unadjusted series include major data providers’ historical-data pages and the investor relations historical price downloads. Common sources allow you to toggle whether you want adjusted prices for dividends/splits or not.

Sources: finance data archives and historical data FAQs from financial portals.

Mechanics and shareholder examples

A stock split changes the number of shares proportional to the split factor while adjusting the per-share price inversely so market capitalization is unchanged.

Examples using the 2022 split (20-for-1):

• If a shareholder held 10 AMZN shares before the 2022 split and the pre-split closing price was $2,785.58 on the relevant date, then after the split they would hold 200 shares (10 × 20). The per-share price would be roughly $139.28 immediately after (2,785.58 / 20), ignoring day-to-day market moves.
• If a shareholder held 1 share since 1997 and did not buy or sell, that 1 share became 240 shares after the 2022 split (2 × 3 × 2 × 20 = 240). A historical nominal price quoted pre-1998 should be divided by 240 to get an equivalent per-share price after the 2022 split.

Rules of thumb:

• Split factor (e.g., 20-for-1) = new shares per old share.
• Post-split price ≈ pre-split price / split factor (subject to normal market movement).
• Holdings after split = holdings before × split factor.

No market cap change occurs solely due to the split, though investor behavior sometimes changes liquidity and demand.

Market reaction and post-split price behavior

Stock splits are neutral with regard to company fundamentals (they do not change market capitalization). Nonetheless, splits can have short-term behavioral effects:

• Liquidity: A lower per-share price often increases accessibility for retail buyers and can increase shares traded per session.
• Perception: Retail investors sometimes view lower-priced shares as more accessible, which can influence demand even though value has not changed.
• Short-term volatility: The days around a split can see higher volume and intraday volatility.

Observed Amazon example (2022): reporting indicated that after the 20-for-1 split the split-adjusted trading price opened in the low-to-mid $100s on the first day of split-adjusted trading in June 2022. Any day-to-day move following that reflected normal market forces. Major outlets noted the split was widely anticipated and that the new per-share price made individual shares more affordable for smaller investors.

Sources: contemporaneous market coverage and trading summaries.

How to verify the exact pre-split price for a specific date

If you want to confirm exactly "how much was amazon stock before the split" for a specific date, follow these steps:

1. Identify the split you mean (1998, 1999 January, 1999 September, 2022). If you mean the most recent split, note the announcement date (March 30, 2022) and the effective trading date (June 6, 2022).
2. Choose a reliable historical price source and confirm whether the table is adjusted for subsequent splits:
   • Use historical data pages on major finance portals that explicitly label adjusted vs. unadjusted prices.
   • Use archived daily OHLC (open-high-low-close) quotes from the trading day before the split effective date if you want nominal pre-split values.
3. Cross-check the closing price on the calendar day immediately before the split takes effect. For the 2022 split, verify the close on the last trading day priced pre-split (many reports used the close near the announcement or the last pre-split close around early June).
4. If comparing to today, convert using the split factor (divide the pre-split nominal price by the split factor to get the immediate theoretical post-split price), or apply cumulative factors as needed for older splits.

Common data providers and datasets to check (they typically allow toggling adjustment for splits/dividends):

• Official exchange historical data and companies’ investor relations resources.
• Major financial data portals that provide daily OHLC and show whether values are adjusted for splits and dividends.
• Historical price and split chronology pages from market-data aggregators.

When you verify, explicitly note whether the quoted number is split-adjusted or nominal and record the data provider and date of retrieval.

Sources: Yahoo Finance historical data tools, Investing.com historical pages, Macrotrends and similar historical data services.

Frequently asked variations of the query

Users asking "how much was amazon stock before the split" often mean one of several things:

• Exact closing price the calendar day before the most recent split took effect (literal pre-split close).
• Price at the moment of the split announcement (which can be earlier than the effective trading date).
• Historical prices before earlier splits in 1998–1999.

How to interpret each:

• For the literal pre-split close, check the trading day immediately preceding the split effective trading date and use nominal historical quotes.
• For the announcement price, check prices on the announcement date (for the 2022 split, the announcement was in late March 2022; many articles used the then-close as an example pre-split figure).
• For pre-1998 historical splits, use the raw nominal prices on those days (see the 1998–1999 list above).

If you want a simple conversion rule: to move from a quoted pre-split price to its immediate post-split equivalent, divide by the split factor (e.g., divide by 20 for the 2022 split).

Sources and verification notes (dates referenced)

• As of March 30, 2022, according to Investopedia reporting, Amazon announced a 20-for-1 split.
• As of June 3, 2022, major financial reporting (for example, widely-circulated market coverage) cited example pre-split closing figures such as $2,785.58 prior to the 20-for-1 split; the split-adjusted equivalent of that figure is approximately $139.28.
• Historical split dates and pre-split nominal prices for 1998 and 1999 splits are recorded in split-history tables compiled by financial data services (e.g., lists of corporate splits and the preceding close prices for those days).
• For long-run conversion factors and cumulative effects, market-data aggregators provide the cumulative multiple (cumulative factor of 240 when applying all four Amazon splits).

When verifying specific numbers yourself, always record the provider and the date you retrieved the data so readers can reproduce your steps.

Practical checklist: find the exact pre-split price you need

1. Decide which split (1998, 1999 Jan, 1999 Sep, 2022).
2. Use a financial data source and select the date one trading day before the split effective date.
3. Confirm the data are nominal (not adjusted); the table should say "unadjusted" or allow you to turn off adjustments.
4. Record the close price, the data provider, and the retrieval date.
5. Convert by the split factor if you need the immediate post-split theoretical price.

Recommended providers for verification: official exchange historical records, major finance portals’ historical-data pages, and market-data aggregators that publish split histories. Remember to note whether data are split-adjusted.

Example worked calculations

• Question: If you saw a reported close of $2,785.58 the day before the 2022 split, how much would that be after the split? Answer: $2,785.58 / 20 ≈ $139.28 per share immediately after the split (ignoring market movement).

• Question: If you held 1 share in 1997 and kept it through 2022, how many shares would you have after the splits? Answer: 1 × 2 × 3 × 2 × 20 = 240 shares.

• Question: If a pre-1998 price was quoted as $120, what is the current-equivalent per share after all splits? Answer: $120 / 240 = $0.50 per current share.

These calculations illustrate the simple math investors use when reconciling nominal historical prices with current share counts.

Market data context (timeliness guidance)

• As of June 3, 2022, contemporaneous reporting provided example pre-split prices in the multi‑thousand‑dollar range for Amazon prior to the 20-for-1 split. Market-cap levels at that time were in the approximate trillion-dollar range; financial portals list Amazon’s market capitalization and average daily volumes for any date in their historical data tools.

• If you need precise market-cap or daily-volume figures for the day prior to a split, consult the same historical-data provider and retrieve the market-cap and volume metrics for that date. Different providers may show slightly different market-cap calculations depending on share-count conventions; always record the source.

Note: This article is strictly factual and does not offer investment advice. It is meant to document the pre-split prices, show how to convert prices for split effects, and explain how to verify exact historical quotes.

Frequently asked practical follow-ups

• I want a table of exact pre-split closing prices with sources. I can provide a concise table listing the date, split ratio, and reported pre-split closing price with the provider cited.

• I need the exact closing price for a specific date (e.g., March 28, 2022). Provide the date and I will extract the nominal close and indicate whether it's split-adjusted or not.

• Where can I trade or track similar equities? If you are exploring trading or market access, consider checking Bitget’s market interface and Bitget Wallet for custody and portfolio management tools. Bitget provides consolidated market access and historical data tools for retail users. This is informational and not investment advice.

See also

• Stock split (general mechanics)
• How split-adjusted historical prices work
• Amazon investor relations and official historical announcements
• How to retrieve historical OHLC data from finance portals

References

All factual items above are based on corporate split announcements, split-history tables, and historical price data compiled by financial data providers. Key reference-style sources to consult for verification:

• Reporting and analysis of the 2022 20-for-1 split (announcement in late March 2022 and effective early June 2022).
• Split history tables listing 1998 and 1999 splits and respective pre-split closes.
• Historical OHLC datasets from major financial-data providers that indicate whether series are adjusted for splits.

(Examples of the types of sources: contemporaneous financial press coverage around March–June 2022, split-history tables on market-data sites, and historical-data pages on finance portals. When you verify numbers, please cite the specific provider and retrieval date.)

Additional help

If you want, I can:

• Produce a concise table of the exact pre-split closing prices for each split date with clear source citations and retrieval dates.
• Pull the exact nominal closing price for any calendar date you specify (I will indicate whether the value is split-adjusted or nominal and name the data provider and the retrieval date).

Further exploration: explore Bitget for market access and Bitget Wallet for custody if you are reviewing trading platforms. For historical research and verification of "how much was amazon stock before the split", use the steps in the verification checklist above.

Action: tell me which split or which calendar date you want the exact nominal closing price for, and I will prepare a source-cited table showing the pre-split figure and the split-adjusted equivalent.