Stock Split results in too many shares of stock

Don Andrews

Current Quicken Home and Business. Investment data downloaded from Schwab. Stock splits 3 for 2. Schwab transactions show originally 1,342 shares and the stock split adding 672 shares for a total of 2,013 shares. Quicken had been accurately reporting the number of shares, but after download the stock split transactions, it incorrectly inflated the number of shares to 3,019.

Quicken downloaded 2 transactions into the register for the stock split. The first transaction "Added" the new split shares increasing the total of shares to 2013. The second transaction was a "StkSplit" transaction, just showing that the shares were split 3-for-2. This apparently caused Quicken to calculate a second stock split so the 2,013 shares became 3,019 shares. The same issue occurred for three separate investment accounts that have the same stock.

I deleted the "StkSplit" transaction in one of the account registers and it disappeared in all three accounts. All three accounts then showed the correct number of shares. This appears to be a Quicken bug that needs to be resolved to avoid future problems.

Tom Young

Don't know why this happened this way unless the Financial Institution that held the security screwed up.  I think though that you deleted the wrong transaction.  A split affects more than the number of shares, it also affects the per share cost basis and an "Added" transaction can't do that.  Your basis, overall, might be correct if the "Added" transaction showed no cost basis, but that's because you'd end up with a combination of shares that total the old, correct, basis and a new "lot" that has no basis.

Delete both entries and then initiate a "StkSplit" transaction with the correct security and split numbers.  That should set things to right.

ADDED: In my version - R21.17 - there seems to be a bug.  In order to get the number of shares properly stated I had to specify 2 new shares for each 3 old shares.

This Added item was incorrect.  StkSplt is not buggy, at least not in the manner I indicated.

Don Andrews

I understand why you suggest my fix will mess up by basis. However, the "StkSplit" function won't work for the following reason. When I enter a "StkSplit" transaction, it asks for the original number of shares and the new number of shares. That is fine for the first investment account with those shares. But Quicken enters that same "StkSplit" transaction into every account where I hold those shares. It completely messes up the share quantity for my other two accounts because it uses the same original and new number of shares. To keep each account total accurate, I had to delete the "StkSplit" transaction and keep the "Added" transaction in each account because that transaction adds the correct number of shares for that account. Again, this appears to be a situation which Quicken did not anticipate. Specifically, holding the same shares in multiple accounts, and then having those shares go through a stock split.

Don Andrews

To make matters worse, I just did another Quicken account update and it told me I was missing the stock split transaction. When I let it download it again, my account values were again wrong. I had to go back and delete the split transaction. I hope this won't be happening over and over again.

Tom Young

It probably will happen over and over again.  Having the split work over all the Accounts in which the security is held makes sense; a stock split is going to affect the security where ever it resides in your Quicken file.

I mentioned the bug that seems to exist with this action above.  When I entered "3" new shares for each "2" shares I ended up with a number of shares that was 2/3rds of the old number of shares - exactly backwards.  When I entered "2" new shares for each "3" old shares the math worked out correctly.  Presumably that will work in all Accounts in your file that hold that security.

The above-reported "bug" was incorrect.  The StkSplt action is functioning properly in this regard.

Rocket J Squirrel

Don Andrews said:

However, the "StkSplit" function won't work for the following reason. When I enter a "StkSplit" transaction, it asks for the original number of shares and the new number of shares. That is fine for the first investment account with those shares. But Quicken enters that same "StkSplit" transaction into every account where I hold those shares. It completely messes up the share quantity for my other two accounts because it uses the same original and new number of shares.

The Stock Split dialog is poorly labeled. You should enter the ratio of the split, not the number of shares. So if the split is 3 for 2, just enter 3 and 2 for new and old shares. Quicken help: