GameStop is surging again on first stock split in 15 years

Shares of GameStop are surging after the video game retailer announced that it would attempt its first stock split in 15 years

Shares of GameStop surged Friday after the video game retailer announced that it would attempt its first stock split in 15 years.

The Grapevine, Texas, company said in a regulatory filing late Thursday that it wants to increase its share count to 1 billion, from 300 million, so it can implement a stock split in the form of a dividend. It plans to seek shareholder approval at its upcoming annual meeting.

A stock split would change the price-per-stock, but not the overall value of those holdings. The maneuver can push up a company’s stock price at least temporarily, and it did so Friday. Shares of GameStop jumped 8% at the opening bell.

JPMorgan Friday that while stock splits may not be the new buyback, they are “an additional tool to push stock prices higher despite financial theory saying otherwise."