Stocks split for various reasons. A quick search came up with this.
Increased number of shares brings the share price down; the company can control the market share price without any bad signaling effect.
A stock split brings the share prices down that make it more convenient for common investors to buy the shares.
In the long term, the share prices tend to increase generally which helps stabilize the market value of the shares.
A lowered share price attracts more investors and hence enables the company to sell more shares and capitalize on liquid cash.
A stock split may happen to satisfy existing shareholders, if the company is short of cash and instead of dividends the management may announce bonus shares in the form of a stock split.
If you do further research, you'll probably find 25 more reasons.
If, as most do, you purchase a dollar amount of a certain stock rather than a certain number of shares, it makes little difference. $5K will buy roughly 1.5 shares of Amazon or 41 shares of PG. Number of shares doesn't matter. If both go up 10%, your gain is the same.
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