(Portal) – Tesla Inc said on Friday that trading in its three-for-one split shares will begin on August 25 after the electric-vehicle maker’s shareholders approved the proposal at its annual meeting.
The EV maker’s shareholders voted in favor of the board’s recommendations on most issues, including re-electing directors, approving a stock split and rejecting proposals focused on the environment and corporate governance, at the company’s annual meeting on Thursday.
Chief Executive Elon Musk owns 15.6% of Tesla, according to Refinitiv data, after selling millions of shares last year.
Each shareholder of record on Aug. 17 will receive a dividend of two additional shares for each share held after the close of trading on Aug. 24, the company said.
The new stock split comes two years after a five-for-one split helped bring the price of the high-flying stock within reach of ordinary investors.
While a split doesn’t affect a company’s fundamentals, it could boost the stock price by making it easier for a broader range of investors to own the stock.
Tesla shares, which debuted at $17 a share in 2010, soared to over $1,200 by the end of the year following the 2020 stock split, taking the company’s market cap to over $1 trillion.
Tesla shares, which closed 6.6% lower on Friday, are down about 18% this year.
At Thursday’s meeting, shareholders narrowly approved an advisory proposal that would improve investors’ ability to nominate directors, with 339.2 million votes in favor of the proposal and nearly 319 million votes against.
A shareholder proposal to ask Tesla to report annually on its efforts to prevent racial discrimination and sexual harassment was defeated by 350.7 million votes against versus 310 million votes in favor of the proposal.
(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)