Price Co. Announces Stock Split : It Is the 4th Such Action Since 1980 for Discount Chain
The Price Co. on Tuesday announced a 2-for-1 stock split of its common stock, the discount wholesale and resale company’s fourth stock split since 1980.
Stock at the San Diego-based Price Co. has split a cumulative 36-for-1 since December, 1980. Based on Tuesday’s closing price, the latest split means that one share of Price Co. stock that was bought at its market value of $26 five years ago has jumped to $1,165.50, an increase of more than 4,400%.
Nearly 46 million shares of stock will be traded after the split, according to Vice President Mitchell Lynn, who said the split would be effective at the close of business on Jan. 10, 1986. The company’s stock closed on Tuesday at 64 3/4, up .
Other Price Co. stock splits included an initial 3-for-1 split when the company went public in December, 1980, a 2-for-1 in May, 1984, and a 3-for-1 split in August, 1981.
In mid-February, the company will close its original 100,000-square-foot Morena Boulevard warehouse and move next door to a recently renovated 135,000-square-foot building. The old building will be demolished and the lot will be turned into a parking lot, Lynn said.
The company operates 24 membership-only wholesale and retail warehouses--Price Clubs--in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia and Maryland. Next year, the company will open warehouses in Northern California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.
The Price Co. recently announced that it would open Price Clubs in Canada, through a joint venture with Steinberg Inc., a Toronto-based food and retail products company.
Meanwhile, Price Co. officials are considering publishing a 28-page monthly tabloid aimed at Price Club members, giving the publication an immediate audience of more than 1 million readers.
The publication would include product tips, consumer issues, health and safety issues, information about other Price Clubs, a readers’ forum and even, perhaps, some information about investments.
If officials give the go-ahead, publication likely would start in February, according to company sources.
