Top companies are focused on the things that create shareholder value, and they want their investors to focus on those things as well.
About a year ago, shares of online travel booking platform Booking Holdings (BKNG 0.43%) went over $3,000 per share for the first time. Now they’re approaching $4,000 per share. And if either of those stock prices are important to you, then Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel would prefer you not buy this stock. You aren’t the kind of investor the company is looking for.
In a recent interview with Barron’s, Fogel was asked why Booking hasn’t split its stock yet considering some people think it’s too expensive at close to $4,000 per share. A stock split would lower the price per share and increase the share count. Fogel responded by saying, “I don’t think I want that kind of investor.”
That’s kind of a big statement considering most investors do focus on this.
A 2023 paper from the Journal of Risk and Financial Management noted a consistent increase in trading volume in a stock during the month leading up to a stock split. Traders were more active when they knew a stock split was coming; it’s clearly a big deal to a lot of people.
Before split-loving investors walk away from Booking Holdings stock, though, they should consider that an investment 20 years ago held to today would have been a thing of beauty. A $10,000 investment in June 2004 would be worth about $1.4 million today. And it did this without the help of a single stock split.
Here’s what Fogel has in common with Warren Buffett
Booking Holdings stock might be approaching $4,000. But that’s child’s play for Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) considering its Class A shares trade at over $600,000 per share as of this writing. And that price doesn’t bother CEO Warren Buffett at all. To the contrary, he prefers it this way.
In Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in 2004, Buffett said, “We’re not looking for the people who think it would be a more attractive stock if, instead of selling at $90,000 a share, it sold at $9 a share.” Therefore, Fogel is in good company — neither he nor Buffett are looking for investors focused on share price and stock splits.
Buffett did reluctantly create Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway in 1996. (They trade around $400 today.) But the motivation wasn’t to make Berkshire’s price more attractive. Rather it was in response to complicated derivative products coming out at the time. Therefore, the Class B shares aren’t inconsistent with Buffett’s stance on stock splits and the type of investor Berkshire hopes to attract.
But why aren’t these companies looking for stock-split investors? Simply put, these investors tend to be focused on short-term, trivial matters more than they’re focused on the things that lead to extraordinary long-term returns. But Buffett, Fogel, and other top CEOs are focused on the long term and they want their investors to be focused on the same place. If they’re focused elsewhere, they won’t be content with progress made in the right areas.
About stock splits in his interview, Fogel went on to say, “I don’t think that’s where people should be focusing their thoughts on.” The stock split doesn’t impact the value of the business.
At that meeting in 2004, Buffett also said, “I think not splitting … has attracted a group of shareholders that really come the closest to an investment-oriented group as almost possible.”
Why long-term investors don’t care about splits
A stock is an ownership stake in a business. The price of that ownership stake can fluctuate from day to day. But if the business becomes bigger and more profitable over the course of years, there’s a strong chance that the ownership stake will be more valuable. This is why the “investment-oriented” folks mentioned by Buffett are thinking years into the future and looking at the things the company can do to create value.
Stock splits aren’t one of those things.
Booking Holdings turned a $10,000 investment into $1.4 million by growing its revenue and profits by eye-popping amounts. And looking ahead, management believes it has strong opportunities to keep its progress going.
Booking Holdings is looking to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a more personalized platform experience, which management hopes will lead to travelers booking more aspects of their trips all in one place. It calls this vision the “connected trip” and it has a real advantage for investors.
Rather than sending travelers to book directly with travel companies, Booking Holdings hopes travelers will book everything directly on its own platform. This could improve loyalty to the platform and there’s a cash-flow benefit to doing business this way — customers pay Booking Holdings directly and the company holds on to the cash until the travel date.
It’s one under-the-radar way that Booking Holdings looks to improve its business over the long haul. And it can have a much greater positive impact than any stock split could.
Jon Quast has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and Booking Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
