What was the true stock price of TOPS ships back in the day?

Question

Taking into account reverse splits, it couldn't have been the $173,000,000 a share. Aren't past prices adjusted as the different X's (example 20x) what it "actually was"? Youd have to compute backwards right? How much was the highest price if you take into account the splits? It couldn't possibly be $173,000,000, that's impossible! The computation would have to reduce with each of the splits backward like they escalated forward. In other words, don't you consider a split the other way, to determine what the price was before the split? Does that make sense? Anybody get what I am asking?

Note: I did the math from $173,000,000.00 and the results was .02c That can't be right either. If anyone can answer this, I will name them, "reverse split stock computing wizard.

Answer 1

The maximum as-traded price for TOPS (as at 2022-10-05) is 24.14 and the lowest is 0.0748.

However, viewing these prices on their own does not give you any sense of the corporate actions that have affected the price.

The large figures you see are adjusted price that take into account all corporate actions (splits, reverse splits, spinoffs, special dividends, ordinary dividentds etc.). Reverse splits result in a multiplication of all previous prices by that factor.

In the case of TOPS, it has had the following reverse splits:

Sep 2022: 1:20 Aug 2020: 1:25 Aug 2019: 1:20 Mar 2018: 1:10 Oct 2017: 1:2 Aug 2017: 1:30 Jul 2017: 1:15 May 2017: 1:20 Feb 2016: 1:10 Apr 2014: 1:7 Jun 2011: 1:10 Mar 2008: 1:3

It also paid out three speccial dividends in Apr 2006 ($2.50), Mar 2006 ($5.00) and Jul 2005 ($0.25) and five ordinary dividends of $0.21 each (Dec 2014, Mar & Jul & Oct 2005, Jan 2006).

So, an adjusted price from 2007 would need to be multiplied by all of the above reverse split factors i.e. 3780000000000

eg. Jan 3 2007, TOPS closed at $4.60. On an adjusted basis, the adjusted close is $17,388,000,000,000 (!).

TOPS is the current leading stock with the most reverse splits still trading. It's amazing that it has survived all these years.

Source: Norgate Data stock market database

Full disclosure: I am a co-owner of Norgate Data.

Answer 2

Imagine that stock XYZ starts the year at $100 and sometime later in the year, when at $80, it splits 2:1. You own 100 shares. Share price is reduced by half and you now own twice as many shares (100*$80 = 200*$40).

The split looks like this:

$100 ... $80 (historical) = $40 (current)

To determine the actual performance of the stock, stock prices prior to the split are adjusted to reflect the split. It's then necessary to find the current equivalent of past price. To adjust XYZ's original price of $100, divide by the stock split. Therefore, the split-adjusted price is $50.

When adjusted for the split, it's:

$50 ... $40 (historical) = $40 (current)

Conclusion? A traditional stock split lowers the adjusted stock prices.

A reverse stock split behaves in the opposite manner. Stock ABC starts the year at $10 and sometime later in the year, when at 50 cents, it reverse splits 1:25. You own 100 shares. Share price is increase 25x and you now own four shares at $12.50

(100*$0.50 = 4*$12.50)

The split looks like this:

$10 ... $0.50 (historical) = $12.50 (current)

When adjusted for the split, it's:

$250 ... $12.50 (historical) = $12.50 (current)

Conclusion? A reverse stock split raises the adjusted stock prices.

TOPS has had 12 reverse splits in the past 15 years. The adjustment factor would be all of these ratios multiplied together or 3,780,000,000,000. However, it has also paid a number of dividends so reconstructing the adjusted price is a bit more complex, which I leave to you.