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In various discussions it is often claimed that YahooFinance always processes the splits into their historical data, but GoogleFinance does not. I have an example where GoogleFinance calculates a split into their historical data:

GOOG historic data from GoogleFinance

Date Open High Low Close Volume

Apr 1, 2014 559.57 568.18 558.44 566.88 2,182,626

Mar 31, 2014 564.63 566.93 555.87 556.70 1,942,277

Mar 28, 2014 558.94 566.03 558.33 559.51 2,258,918

Mar 27, 2014 564.86 565.40 550.50 556.58 3,826,676

Mar 26, 2014 580.42 585.20 565.18 565.42 -

Mar 25, 2014 582.42 584.34 572.93 578.78 -

A 2:1 split happened on March 27, 2014. In the historic data this seems to be taken into account.

My question: Does anybody have example(s) where a company's split in the historic data of GoogleFinance is not taken into account (showing as a step in the time series)?

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Actually there was no split in GOOG on 27 Mar 2014.

What happened is as follows: Google Inc (at the time, now called Alphabet) had class A shares trading as NASDAQ:GOOG. In early 2014 it announced it would be issuing Class C shares to Class A shareholders as a stock dividend. The ex-date for this corporate action was 3 Apr 2014. These new class C shares began trading on a "when issued" basis on Nasdaq under the symbol GOOCV on 27 Mar 2014. On 3 Apr 2014, GOOCV was "issued" and became GOOG (and still trades under that symbol). Simultaneously, class A GOOG shares had a symbol change to GOOGL.

Some providers have erroneously shown this stock dividend as a split. It's not - it's a stock dividend. In terms of its value to the original GOOG (now GOOGL) shareholders, GOOCV closed at $567 on 2 Apr 2014, so that is its "value" as far as a dividend/distribution is concerned.

Neither GOOG nor GOOGL have ever had a stock split.

Your screenshot reveals a further error in that the "new" GOOG never traded prior to 27 Mar 2014. That history belongs to the Class A shares (now GOOGL).

Here's an example of when Google Finance has erroneously missed a (reverse) split: China Precision Steel Inc - CPSL. This was a 12:1 reverse split on exdate 20120828.

Here's an example of when Google Finance has erroneously missed a (very large) stock dividend/spinoff: NYSE:GHC ex-date 20150701. GHC spun-off Cable One Inc.

(these errors exist in Google Finance as at 4 Jan 2018)

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Well, it sure looked like a 'split' in my account. I paid over $1k per Class A share before the split and the value drop in half when the Class C shares were issued. Not sure how you can consider this to be a dividend. My shares were definitely split.

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  • A stock dividend is when a company gives its shareholders more stock, instead of cash. This is different from a split for many reasons, including tax treatment, and in this case, because you didn't get more Class A shares [which you would have in a split], you got Class C shares.
    – Grade 'Eh' Bacon
    Commented Sep 4, 2019 at 14:49

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