Apple (AAPL 0.20%) has moved back into the top spot as the largest company in the world by market cap. It's gone through some stunning ups and downs, but if you'd bought shares at the initial public offering (IPO) back in 1980 and held on, you'd have a lot more shares, and a lot of money. Let's see just how much.
Holding for the long term
Apple went public in December 1980 at $22 per share. Like pretty much any stock over a nearly 45-year period, Apple stock has climbed and crashed several times. For example, it lost 21% of its value between 1989 and 1996 -- a long period for an investor to hold on to a stock that's losing. But if you did, you'd have quite a windfall today.
Since that time, Apple has developed an incredible tech platform with a strong moat in its differentiated systems and applications. It has a strong, loyal fan base that only buys Apple products and consistently moves up to new drops and launches. Just this week Apple released its latest software update, iOS18, with a swarm of new upgrades and features. It's also investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to stay competitive in the tech race.
That's why Apple stock has skyrocketed over time and gone through five stock splits: three 2-for-1 stock splits in 1987, 2000, and 2005; a 7-for-1 split in 2014; and a 4-for-1 split in 2020. Each IPO share would have been worth $0.10 split adjusted, and you'd own 224 shares today. At today's prices, that's worth $48,455. In short, the stock has appreciated more than 2,200 times since its IPO. For further perspective, if you had instead invested $1,000 in the stock at its IPO, your investment would've been worth $2.2 million today, excluding the dividends that were paid to you over the years.
