Apple Inc. said Thursday that it will enact a 4-for-1 stock split, essentially giving investors three more shares for every one they own.
Once nearly a given for most firms when their shares topped $100 or so, stock splits by companies in the S&P 500 faded from prominence after the dot-com bust in 2000. They are even more rare among companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Apple is a component of both.
One…