Costco's Last Stock Split Was in 2000. Is Its Board Close to Another?

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last split its stock in January 2000. Just after the 2-for-1 split, the shares sold for about $49.

Now one share costs roughly $994 as of this writing, or about what 20 shares cost back then. Even after a dip, that's only about 9% off the warehouse club's all-time closing high of $1,094.32, hit in May.

Investors have noticed. An analyst asked about a split on an earnings call, shareholders asked at both of the past two annual meetings, and Costco hasn't announced one.

Could a split finally be coming?

Image source: Getty Images.

Costco says its board keeps looking at it

The fullest answer came from CFO Gary Millerchip on the company's earnings call in December 2024. Asked about splits, Millerchip said there wasn't a plan for one then.

He also laid out why a split matters less than before.

"[T]he economic arguments that were true in the past are a little bit less clear because retail investors and employees both have the ability now to buy fractional shares," Millerchip said.

But he also said a lower share price can make the stock seem more affordable for the same investors and employees. And he added the company would keep talking it over with the board.

CEO Ron Vachris has given shareholders a shorter version of that answer since. At the annual meeting in January 2025, he said there was nothing to report on a split. A year later, at the meeting on Jan. 15, 2026, a shareholder asked about both a split and a special dividend.

"I have nothing to report at this time, but I can tell you that it's being reviewed with the board, and we look at it regularly," Vachris said.

I'd read it as a polite no for now. A split didn't come up in Costco's fiscal fourth-quarter call on Sept. 24, and its next annual meeting is on Jan. 21, 2027.

Two retailers that did split

Two other retailers split their shares recently, and both said they did it mostly for their employees.

Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT) announced a 3-for-1 split on Jan. 30, 2024, when its stock closed around $166. Back then, over 400,000 of its workers were in its stock purchase plan. O'Reilly Automotive (NASDAQ:ORLY) followed in March 2025, when its board approved a 15-for-1 split with the shares near $1,300.

Both CEOs even used the same words, describing the aim as letting employees buy "whole shares, rather than fractions."

Costco's chief financial officer, though, took the other side of that point. After all, fractions are easy to get now. Charles Schwab, for instance, lets investors buy fractional shares of most U.S.-listed stocks for as little as $1.

And the share price alone likely doesn't force Costco's hand. It's about six times what Walmart's stock cost when it announced its split, but below where O'Reilly's was.

A split wouldn't make Costco cheaper

Even if Costco did split its shares, its valuation would stay the same. With about 443 million shares outstanding, Costco is worth roughly $441 billion at today's price. A 10-for-1 split would just turn that into about 4.4 billion shares at about $99 each.

What drives the stock over time is what a share earns. Costco earned $20.76 per share in fiscal 2026 (ended Aug. 30, 2026), up 14% from the year before. That's faster than fiscal 2025's 10% gain, so earnings growth is accelerating. Shares around $994 put the stock's price-to-earnings ratio at about 48. That means buyers pay about $48 for every $1 Costco earned last fiscal year. And I think a price like that already asks a lot of a company growing earnings at around 14%, and a split wouldn't change it.

If Costco wants to give shareholders something, the other item in Vachris' answer could do it. Costco's regular quarterly dividend of $1.47 per share works out to a yield of only around 0.6%, so it isn't much of a dividend stock by itself. But Costco has paid five special dividends since 2012, the biggest a $15 per share payout in January 2024 that cost the company around $6.7 billion. It hasn't paid any since.

Is a split next, then? I doubt one is close. Costco's leaders have given the same answer at least three times since December 2024, and the chief financial officer's point on fractional shares goes against the one Walmart and O'Reilly made.

If a split does happen, it changes the price of a share and little else. I'd focus more on the special dividend, the other item on the board's list, because it's the one that gives shareholders cash.

Charles Schwab is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Charles Schwab and recommends the following options: short September 2026 $95 calls on Charles Schwab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.