There was a lot to digest in yesterday’s earnings conference call. One item that was mentioned, almost as an afterthought, was Tim Cook’s announcement of a seven way stock split.

From Seeking Alpha (free reg-wall):

In addition to the changes to our capital return program today. We are also announcing a seven-for-one split of Apple common stock which will occur in June of this year. We are taking this action to make Apple stock more accessible to a larger number of investors. Each shareholder of record at the close of business on June the 2nd, 2014 will receive six additional shares for every outstanding share held on the record day and trading will begin on a split-adjusted basis on June the 9th, 2014.

This means that the if you own a single share priced at $525, say, before the split, on June 9th you’ll find yourself with seven shares, each worth $75.

Tim Cook made the point that the split was done to make shares more accessible to a larger number of investors. All the newly split shares will be the same class, unlike the recent 2 for 1 split of Google’s stock, which split the stock into two different classes, one with voting rights and one without.