Will Amazon (AMZN) Split and be Added to The Dow? Odeon Wouldn't Be Surprised

The rumor mill turned out interesting speculation involving Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) Thursday morning, suggesting CEO and founder Jeff Bezos could split the stock, potentially opening it up to more investors and allowing inclusion into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The source of the rumor was a tweet by Doug Kass.

Analyst Jahanara Nissar of Odeon said she wouldn't be surprised to see Bezos split the stock. On paper a split means nothing but it would certainly open up the investor base to a wider group and allow younger people to build positions, which is positive, said Nissar.

Nissar noted several additional points:

1. AMZN had 3 stock splits in just 15 months during the Dot Com days
2. It's the ONLY way for AMZN to get into the DJIA (which isn't easy as DJIA is price weighted vs S&P 500 market cap based)
3. AMZN cares about the little guys! Stock split opens up the investor base
4. The $1,000 stock price just makes for a lot of distraction - AAPL decided to bow out of the $1,000 game when it split their stock 7-for1 3 years ago.
5. So far this year only 2 Co's in the S&P 500 have split their stock vs 6 last year.

Based on a back of the envelope analysis by StreetInsider, it wasn't clear what stock Amazon could replace in the Dow. It also wasn't clear if Amazon would be considered a tech stock or a retail stock, or both.

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