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After some recent notable stock splits, which high-priced stocks could be next?

Here we rank AutoZone (AZO), United Rentals (URI), and W.W. Grainger (GWW), three of the most-watched candidates, from least likely to most likely to split.

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Wall Street is rediscovering the stock-split playbook. KLA (NASDAQ: KLAC) announced a 10-for-1 forward stock split in May 2026 alongside a fiscal Q3 earnings beat and a roughly 21% dividend hike, with shares trading near the $1,800 range. Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) has completed a 25-for-1 split announced in February 2026, dragging its share price down from over $4,000 to roughly $155.

That backdrop has investors scanning the four-digit club for the next candidate. Three NYSE-listed names keep surfacing: AutoZone (NYSE: AZO), United Rentals (NYSE: URI), and W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW). To be clear: none has announced a split, hinted at one in filings, or telegraphed board action. What follows ranks them purely on structural likelihood, from least to most plausible.

AutoZone trades at $3,406.50, with a market cap near $56.4 billion. The auto parts retailer posted Q2 FY26 EPS of $27.63 on revenue of $4.27 billion, with domestic commercial sales up 9.8%.

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The bull case for a split is the nominal price itself, the highest of this trio, plus broad insider participation including CEO Phil Daniele's March 31, 2026, acquisition at $3,377.78 a share. Retail accessibility is strained at these levels.

The bear case is structural and overwhelming. AutoZone has not split its stock in over 30 years, and it has repurchased $38.9 billion of stock since 1998, with $741.9 million spent in the first half of FY26 alone. The buyback machine is the explicit reason the price keeps climbing. Splitting would undercut decades of capital allocation philosophy. Shares are down 11.7% over the past year, easing any pressure to act.

W.W. Grainger trades at $1,247.79, with a market cap around $58.9 billion. The industrial distributor crushed Q1 FY26, beating EPS estimates by 14.08% at $11.65, with revenue of $4.74 billion, up 10.13%. Management raised FY26 adjusted EPS guidance to $44.25 to $46.25 and hiked the dividend 10%.

Here's the bull case: shares have rallied 23.7% year to date and 452.4% over 10 years. CEO D.G. Macpherson described "continued momentum" as guidance was raised. A four-digit price invites the accessibility argument that pushed KLA over the line.

The bear case is heritage. Grainger has carried a premium nominal price for decades with an institutional shareholder base that has not demanded a split. Capital return flows through $0.95 billion to $1.05 billion in planned buybacks and dividend growth, not financial engineering. Heavy insider selling on May 12, 2026, at prices above $1,229 suggests no one inside is bracing for a corporate action.

Trading at $938.62, United Rentals has a market cap near $58.8 billion. Q1 FY26 produced record adjusted EPS of $9.71, beating by 8.63%, on revenue of $3.985 billion. Free cash flow grew 55% to $1.054 billion.

The bull case is the cleanest of the three. Shares have surged 33.4% over the past year and 1,272.3% over a decade. United Rentals has a cyclical, retail-friendly equipment rental story that resonates with individual investors. CEO Matthew Flannery cited "momentum we are carrying into our busy season."

There is a bear case: the new $5.0 billion buyback authorization and $1.50 billion in planned 2026 repurchases point toward share-count reduction, the same dynamic that pushes prices higher rather than lower. A 10% dividend bump to $1.97 quarterly reinforces a capital-return culture that has not historically reached for split optics.

With the lowest nominal price, steepest recent appreciation, and most retail-recognizable brand of the three, United Rentals fits the post-KLA template better than its peers. If any of these names blinks first, this is the one.

A stock split is cosmetic, leaving market cap, fundamentals, and intrinsic value unchanged. It can shift retail demand, options accessibility, and short-term sentiment, which is why the KLA and Booking moves caught attention. To repeat the necessary caveat: none of AutoZone, Grainger, or United Rentals has announced a split, signaled one, or filed board action toward one. United Rentals checks more structural boxes than the other two, while AutoZone's buyback-driven price ascent makes it the least likely candidate.

 

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