A stock certificate is a physical piece of paper that represents ownership in a company. Certificates include information such as the number of shares owned, the date when they were purchased, and&ꦐnbsp;an identification number. Stock certificates were a common form of proving stock ownership in the past although they're not used very much at all these days.

The company divides its existing shares into multiple shares when a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:stock splits in an attempt to boost the liquidity of the shares. You'ཧll be registered with the company as a shareholder of record if you still own paper certꦅificates and you'll receive your newly issued shares electronically.

Splits Don't Often Affect Certificates

Shares are never actually held in paper form by the investor or the investor's brokerage firm when an investor purchases shares in a company. The shares are instead held in electronic form and registered with the company's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:transfer agent.

Investors do have the right to obtain the shares in paper form, however. These are referred to as stock certificates. You'll still be registered as the holder of record with the transfer agent if your shares are held in paper form.

You'll continue to hold your certificates in the event of a stock split. The company's transfer agent will add the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:split-adjusted shares to its records at the time of the split. These additional𝕴 shares will be in electronic form on the transfer agent's books and stock certificates will generally not be issued.

An Example

It would mean that you would receive an additional share for every share you hold in the company if a company instituted a two-for-one stock split. You would own 200 shares after the split if you held 100 shares b✅efore the split. The price per share would be cut in half, however, making everything even out. 

You would retain those shares and not be required to return the certificates if those 100 shares were held as stock certificates. Your additional 100 shares in the company would simply be registered to you by the transfer agent. You would hold 100 shares in physical stock certificate form and an additional 100 shares ꦫwould be held in electronic form by the transfer agent.

You would simply have to ask the transfer agent to send youꦫ stock certificates if you wanted to receive the additional 100 shares in paper form. You could exchange them with a stock broker if you wanted to convert your paper certificates to electronically represented shares.

The Bottom Line

The only thing that happens to your stock certificates in the event of a stock split is that each certificate is now worth less than it was before. You gain additional shares, however, that are given to you in electronic form. There's no need to send your certificates back or rip them in half to sell them. Companies tend to make stock splits as easy on investors as possible.