How to Read the Reverse Split Calendar

Start with the calendar

This guide explains how to read a reverse split calendar. The current list of upcoming reverse splits, with the approved, vote pending and recently completed ones beside it, is the reverse split calendar. Open it alongside this page.

The sample below is live. It lists reverse splits that have been announced with a market effective date inside the next two weeks, as of the time shown. A split announced after you load the page is not on it yet, and a scheduled split can be postponed or cancelled by the company before the date arrives.

Live screen

Scheduled reverse splits, next 14 days

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The rest of this page explains how a split gets onto the calendar, what the ratio and the date mean for a position, and what to read in the filings around it. For the mechanics of the split itself (fractional shares, the CUSIP change, Nasdaq's cumulative cap), see reverse stock splits explained.

Where the date comes from

A reverse split is not a surprise event. Before it reaches the tape, four things have usually happened, each with a document attached:

1. Shareholder approval or board authority. Most US companies need a shareholder vote to amend the charter, so the split is proposed in a proxy statement (Schedule 14A), often as a ratio range ("between 1-for-5 and 1-for-50, at the board's discretion"). Some states lower the bar: Nevada (NRS 78.207) lets the board split without a vote when authorized shares are reduced in the same proportion, and a 2023 amendment to Delaware's corporation law (Section 242(d)) cut the vote an exchange-listed company needs for a reverse split to a majority of the votes cast.
2. The board picks the ratio. Once approved, the board fixes the ratio and the effective date, usually weeks or months later.
3. Exchange notice. On Nasdaq, Listing Rule 5250(e)(7) requires the company to tell Nasdaq at least ten calendar days before the market effective date, and Rule 5250(b)(4) requires public disclosure by 12:00 p.m. ET at least two business days before it.
4. The 8-K. The company files an 8-K, usually under Item 5.03 (amendments to the charter), stating the ratio, the effective date, how fractional shares are treated and the new CUSIP.

The press release and the 8-K are where the date on this page comes from. If the two disagree, the 8-K is the one the company signed.

What a row tells you, and what it does not

Each row names the company, the ratio and the effective date. Three things to keep straight:

• The ratio is arithmetic, not a signal. 1-for-20 means every 20 old shares become one new share and the price is multiplied by 20 at the open on the effective date. Your percentage of the company is unchanged. The reverse split calculator converts a position across any ratio.
• The date is the market effective date. The old shares trade through the close of the prior session; the new shares open on the effective date. Open orders, stops included, are commonly cancelled by brokers across the split, because their prices refer to a security that no longer exists. Check your broker's policy before the date.
• The list says nothing about why. The most common reason among small listed companies is a Nasdaq bid-price deficiency notice under Listing Rule 5550(a)(2), which starts a 180-calendar-day clock. But the row does not say that; the 8-K under Item 3.01 from months earlier does.

A worked example

Hypothetical Company X has 120,000,000 shares outstanding, closed yesterday at $0.25, and completes a 1-for-25 reverse split today.

All figures are hypothetical, before any trading on the effective date.

Now the part the ratio hides. Suppose Company X's charter authorises 300,000,000 shares and the split does not reduce that number. Before the split, 180,000,000 shares were unissued. After it, 295,200,000 are. The company has gone from being able to issue one and a half times what is outstanding to being able to issue more than sixty times what is outstanding, without another shareholder vote. That gap between authorized shares and outstanding shares is the reason the reverse split dilution cycle exists as a pattern.

What to read before and after the date

The split 8-K is short. The documents around it carry the information:

• The proxy (Schedule 14A) that approved it. Look for the ratio range, whether authorized shares are reduced in proportion, and any separate proposal to increase authorized shares. The proxy statements guide covers where to look.
• The deficiency notice 8-K (Item 3.01). If there is one, it gives the date the 180-day compliance period started. Compliance is regained by closing at or above $1.00 for at least 10 consecutive business days, so a split timed near the deadline is doing one specific job. The deficiency notices guide explains the clock.
• Any effective shelf registration or 424B5. A split does not change the dollar value of the public float (fewer shares at a proportionally higher price), so on its own it does not change baby shelf capacity, which is one-third of public float priced from a date within 60 days before a sale. What a split can change is the bid-price deficiency that stood in the way of a sale. The arithmetic is in the baby shelf guide.
• The equity note in the latest 10-Q. Warrants and convertible notes are adjusted by the split ratio, so 10,000,000 warrants at $0.50 become 400,000 warrants at $12.50 after 1-for-25. The potential supply is the same fraction of the company it was before.

Rounding of fractional shares is the one detail that changes the share count slightly: "rounding up" adds a share to every holder with a fraction, which on a widely held stock can add a measurable number of shares. The method is stated in the 8-K.

How to use the calendar on Signal8

• The full list, including splits beyond 14 days, approved splits with no date yet and pending shareholder votes, is the reverse split calendar. The reverse split scanner shows the same scheduled splits with live price, volume and float, and the market calendar shows them beside other corporate events.
• Open the company page from any row to read the 8-K and the proxy under its filings tab, and the warrant and convertible terms under its dilution tab.
• The delisting screener lists companies with open compliance deficiencies, which is where many of the names on this page appear first.
• The reverse split calculator handles a single ratio or several past splits for the cumulative ratio Nasdaq counts under its 250-to-1 rule.
• For the broader picture of how a split fits into small-cap financing, start with how to trade penny stocks.

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