What if I invested $1,000 in Apple in 1984?
The $1,000 investment in Apple stock at the time would be worth $1,455,538.90 today, based on a price of $189.22 for Apple at the time of writing. The Super Bowl commercial from Apple was a key event for the company and could have been a key moment for investors who recognized the potential for Apple.
If you had invested $1,000 in Apple stock on Jan. 24, 1984, today, you would have $1,593,809. Likewise, if you had invested $1,000 in an index fund replicating Nasdaq, you would have $55,090. A similar $1,000 investment in an index fund that replicates the S&P 500 would be worth $29,230.
The closing price for Apple (AAPL) in 1984 was $0.10, on December 31, 1984. It was up 19.5% for the year. The latest price is $169.58.
Apple debuted on the public markets in 1980. If you invested $1,000 in the company, then your investment would now be worth nearly $1.5 million.
Those gains translate to a 36.6% compound annual growth rate for Apple compared to a 7.4% CAGR for the S&P 500 in that time. That means that $10,000 in AAPL stock purchased 20 years ago would be worth about $5.08 million today, assuming reinvested dividends.
Indeed, Apple shares will never get back to $700, says The Economist.
| Year | Median Price Prediction | Potential Low |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $216 | $183 |
| 2025 | $237 | $199 |
| 2026 | $298 | $271 |
| 2030 | $561 | $460 |
Shares in Staar, a small, over-the- counter company, rose eightfold to close at $9 in 1984, making it the best performing stock of the year in terms of percentage gain.
Buffett made waves in the investment world when Berkshire first bought Apple stock in Q1 2016, and then continued and even accelerated his buying throughout 2016 and into 2017.
In any case, a $10,000 investment in Apple stock made in February 1984 -- held to today, with dividends reinvested -- would now be worth $22.8 million. Turning to the present, it's clear that artificial intelligence (AI) is about to change the world.
What if I invested $1,000 in Apple 20 years ago?
What does that look like on a brokerage statement? Check out the above chart and you'll see that if you invested $1,000 in Apple stock 20 years ago, it would today be worth almost $530,000. The same $1,000 invested in the S&P 500 would have theoretically turned into $6,186 over the same period.
Had you invested $1,000 in Microsoft 10 years ago, you would have turned a hefty profit by today. According to computations by CNBC, that modest amount would already have been worth $11,400 as of Nov. 9, 2023.
To get a sense of what that sort of underperformance looks like on an account statement, have a look at the chart below. This chart illustrates the disconcerting fact that if you invested $1,000 in Walmart stock 20 years ago, today it would be worth only about $4,400.
Apple went public on Dec. 12, 1980, with a public offering of 4.6 million shares at $22 a share. Within a day, its share price had shot up more than 30%. Its market cap was almost immediately more than $1 billion, and quickly nearly $2 billion.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has made a lot of millionaires over the years, with its shares up 792% over the last decade. However, it hit some roadblocks in 2024, with its stock down 11% year to date.
Therefore, if you had invested $1,000 in Apple stock in 1990, it would be worth approximately $598,972.50 today.
Amazon could continue to grow faster than Apple through the end of the decade, but its valuations are a bit stretched. If Amazon maintains its current valuations, matches analysts' expectations, and grows its EPS at a CAGR of 20% from 2025 to 2030, its market cap would reach $5.5 trillion by the final year.
Wall Street expects Tesla earnings per share of just $2.96 a share in 2024, according to FactSet. That would be a around a 5% decline vs. last year's $3.12. That was a 23% decline vs. 2022. Analyst project a solid increase in 2025 to $4.13 a share.
The next decade is going to be a tougher slog than the last 10 years. Tesla won't be a bust like Rivian and Lucid but I don't see it outperforming the market either. The share price will have to come down significantly from these levels to make TSLA stock a buy.
He forecasts Tesla stock to gain about 550% to hit $1,200 a share by 2030, and for SpaceX to triple in valuation over the same period, according to a recent interview conducted by Bloomberg. Baron runs the Baron Focused Growth Fund, which counted Tesla and SpaceX as its largest holdings as of December 31, 2023.
Can Nvidia reach $1000?
Eight years ago, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) mostly sold computer chips to make video games look prettier – the shares went for $8 apiece. In 2024, the shares change hands for over $800. Nvidia is the third-largest company in the world.
NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran, known as the "Dean of Valuation," thinks Nvidia's fair value assuming a revenue CAGR of 32% over the next five years is $436. Nvidia's current share price is more than twice that amount.
- Coca-Cola. (NASDAQ: KO) ...
- Altria. (NASDAQ: MO) ...
- Amazon.com. (NASDAQ: AMZN) ...
- Celgene. (NASDAQ: CELG) ...
- Apple. (NASDAQ: AAPL) ...
- Alphabet. (NASDAQ:GOOG) ...
- Gilead Sciences. (NASDAQ: GILD) ...
- Microsoft. (NASDAQ: MSFT)
The most expensive stock listed on U.S. exchanges is Berkshire Hathaway. At the time of this writing, Berkshire Hathaway stock was trading at $623,000 a share. But that price point is for its Class A stock (BRK. A).
1. Nvidia (NVDA) Nvidia is one of the best performing stocks of all-time and has richly rewarded shareholders over the past decade. Nvidia initially rose to prominence for its chips used for video-game graphics, but its business has boomed recently thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence.
