Fractional Shares Calculator

Calculate the number of fractional shares you can buy and more!

What are fractional shares?

Fractional shares are a form of micro-investing where an investor can purchase a portion of a stock.

What are pros and cons of fractional shares?

A huge benefit is being able to participate in stock ownership with less. A downside is that fractional shares may not be available for all stocks.

Why do investors buy fractional shares?

• Some investors prefer dollar-based investing, where they invest a certain dollar amount instead of purchasing a specific number of shares. For example, investing $200 in a $120 stock would equal 1.67 shares.

• Some brokerages do not pay a yield (or pay a very low one) on uninvested cash. If an investor wants to make sure their money is always invested, they may use fractional shares.

• If an investor is interested in a stock, but doesn't currently have (or want to invest) the full price of the stock, they may use fractional shares.

• An investor may also use dividend income to purchase fractional shares.

What does a fractional share look like?

Fractional shares are expressed as a decimal value. For example, half of one share is 0.50 compared to 1 share.

Can you buy a penny worth of a stock?

Some brokerages allow investors to purchase fractional shares with as little as $0.01 . Others may have a minimum dollar amount. For example, spending at least $5 for a fraction of a $100 share.

I didn't buy a fractional share, how did I get one?

If you purchased a share in a company that recently did a stock split, merger, spinoff, or other corporate action -- you may end up with a fractional share.

What to do if a platform does not support fractional shares?

Sometimes platforms will force sell fractional shares. They typically will send you a notice before they complete the sale. This can also happen if you are transferring shares from one brokerage to another.

To prevent the sale of fractional shares, you can keep the fractional ones in the current platform or you can purchase enough to make the fractional share whole.

What are other names for fractional shares?

Fractional shares may also be called:

• mini shares

• micro shares

• stock slices

• split shares

• partial shares

• dollar-based orders