Wall Street This Week: Netflix Splits, Amazon Deals
From the world's leading online retailer kicking off a day-long sales event to a dot-com darling executing a highly anticipated 7-for-1 stock split, here are some of the things that will help shape the week that lies ahead on Wall Street.
Monday -- Mobile on the Move
MobileBeat 2015 kicks off Monday in San Francisco. The VentureBeat-hosted event is now in its eighth year, bringing together industry execs of companies making waves in the booming smartphone market that has only gotten larger with every passing year.
Tuesday -- Splitting Headache
%VIRTUAL-WSSCourseInline-1038%Netflix (NFLX) is breaking out the big scissors. The premium video streaming leader's stock split will be payable Tuesday. Every single share will be replaced by seven shares. The dividend is payable after market close Tuesday, and the stock will reflect the move when it opens for trading Wednesday.
A stock split isn't a big deal: It doesn't change anything. Shareholders will own seven shares instead of one, and the stock will trade at a seventh of the price. However, many investors continue to view stock split announcements as favorable developments. We'll see how Netflix stock reacts. It's been one of the market's biggest winners of 2015 so far.
Wednesday -- Prime Real Estate
If you've never heard of Prime Day as a major shopping holiday, that may change after Wednesday. Amazon.com (AMZN) is tapping Wednesday as Prime Day, promising to offer up more deals than it shelled out during Black Friday in a move to celebrate the success of its Amazon Prime loyalty shopping platform.
Amazon's putting up a photo and hashtag contest with a cash prize, but Amazon Prime shoppers -- and there are already tens of millions of them -- will probably be flocking to the site to check out the deals.
Thursday -- Earning Interest
Earnings season kicks off this week, and Thursday will be a big day for banking. Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS) will be reporting their latest quarterly results. This would seem to be a great time to be a banker, but Wall Street's bracing for slight year-over-year declines in revenue at both titans of personal finance.
Friday -- Another Splitting Headache
EBay (EBAY) announced earlier this year that it would be spinning off its faster-growing PayPal subsidiary, and that split will take place Friday. PayPal will trade independently under the ticker symbol PYPL.
Activists have been asking eBay to do this for years, feeling that the stock has been held back by the slower-growing namesake auction site. It will be interesting to see which of the two stocks winds up as the better performer after Friday's separation.
Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com, eBay and Netflix. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days, and check out our free report for one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.
