Mitrade Insights is dedicated to providing investors with rich, timely and most valuable financial information to help investors grasp the market situation and find timely trading opportunities.

2021

Best News & Analysis Provider

FxDailyInfo

2022

Best Forex Educational Resources Global

International Business Magazine

Insights

News

If You'd Invested $1,000 in Amazon Stock 27 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

Source The Motley Fool

When it comes to growth potential over time, few stocks have matched Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). The e-commerce pioneer has evolved from an online bookseller to a conglomerate that leads the way in several niches of retail and technology.

In hindsight, if one had the patience to wait and the fortitude to ride out massive declines, a $1,000 investment in the company's initial public offering (IPO) would have paid off handsomely for shareholders.

Amazon's growth

A $1,000 investment at the closing price on the day of the IPO and not sold would be worth roughly $1.87 million today. The stock made its debut on May 15, 1997, at a pre-split closing price of $23.50 per share ($0.098 per share split-adjusted). Assuming one could buy fractional shares, the 42.55 shares bought on that day would have grown to 10,212 shares worth $182.69 each as of the time of this writing.

Those who owned the stock for the entire 27-year history haven't been on a predictable or easy path.

Investors may have anticipated Amazon would venture beyond the sale of just books, it was next to impossible to predict the huge variety of products it would sell or that it would spearhead the cloud computing industry through Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is critical because AWS generates the majority of its operating income.

Investors also endured a brutal sell-off during the dot-com bust. Between 1999 and 2001, Amazon's stock fell as much as 95% and didn't return to its 1999 high until 2009.

For a time, that drop made it look more like many of the failed online retailers at the time. Hence, investors would have had to have a strong belief in the vision of founder Jeff Bezos to hold their shares through that period.

Ultimately, the history of Amazon stock outlines both the rewards and the difficulties of IPO investing. While the potential returns can be massive, it typically takes vision, analysis skills, discipline, and a high pain tolerance to identify such investments early and allow them to grow to their full potential.

Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?

Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $728,325!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 30, 2024

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Will Healy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Recommended Articles

October hike odds climb toward 60% as Goldman and BofA both flip — what Warsh's "dose of accommodation" really changed Rate futures now price roughly 55% to 62% for a 25bp hike at the October 27-28 FOMC, up from about 30% before Chair Warsh's post-meeting framing that the Fed is merely "removing some accommodation." Goldman Sachs has added an October hike to its forecast and Bank of America now sees moves in both October and December. Here is the repricing, the language behind it, and the two data points that decide it.

Author Irene Q.

Sep 23, Wed

Rate futures now price roughly 55% to 62% for a 25bp hike at the October 27-28 FOMC, up from about 30% before Chair Warsh's post-meeting framing that the Fed is merely "removing some accommodation." Goldman Sachs has added an October hike to its forecast and Bank of America now sees moves in both October and December. Here is the repricing, the language behind it, and the two data points that decide it.

Four jobs reports in five days: what JOLTS, ADP, claims and the September payrolls mean for the October Fed decision The US labour market faces its densest data week of the month. JOLTS job openings land Tuesday (7.2 million expected), ADP on Wednesday (70,000 expected), initial claims on Thursday and the September non-farm payrolls on Friday (100,000 expected, down from 162,000). Markets price a 64%-70% chance of another quarter-point Fed hike on October 28. The dollar index sits at 100.77 and the S&P 500 at 7,729.8.

Author Mitrade

Sep 28, Mon

The US labour market faces its densest data week of the month. JOLTS job openings land Tuesday (7.2 million expected), ADP on Wednesday (70,000 expected), initial claims on Thursday and the September non-farm payrolls on Friday (100,000 expected, down from 162,000). Markets price a 64%-70% chance of another quarter-point Fed hike on October 28. The dollar index sits at 100.77 and the S&P 500 at 7,729.8.

Nvidia's $150 billion buyback landed — and the AI sector fell anyway. That's the signal worth trading Nvidia closed up 1.68% at $228.86 on 28 September after announcing a $150 billion share repurchase authorisation, the largest single corporate buyback on record, while the rest of the AI complex sold off: AMD -3.6%, Micron -2.6%, Meta -4.8% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index -1.61%. The divergence is not noise. Capital is rotating toward cash-flow certainty, not abandoning the AI theme. With Micron reporting after the close on 30 September, here is what the split means.

Author Irene Q.

Yesterday 06: 31

Nvidia closed up 1.68% at $228.86 on 28 September after announcing a $150 billion share repurchase authorisation, the largest single corporate buyback on record, while the rest of the AI complex sold off: AMD -3.6%, Micron -2.6%, Meta -4.8% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index -1.61%. The divergence is not noise. Capital is rotating toward cash-flow certainty, not abandoning the AI theme. With Micron reporting after the close on 30 September, here is what the split means.

The 30-year Treasury just hit a 22-year high — and the bond market is not pricing the Fed, it is pricing the deficit The 30-year Treasury yield closed at 5.56% on 28 September, the highest since June 2004, while the 10-year reached 5.24% and the 20-year 5.60%. The curve has steepened roughly 30bp in eight sessions even as October hike odds sit at 70.3%. That gap is the story: the long end is repricing fiscal and inflation risk, not policy. With PCE on Wednesday and payrolls on Friday, here is what the long end is really saying.

Author Irene Q.

Yesterday 07: 08

The 30-year Treasury yield closed at 5.56% on 28 September, the highest since June 2004, while the 10-year reached 5.24% and the 20-year 5.60%. The curve has steepened roughly 30bp in eight sessions even as October hike odds sit at 70.3%. That gap is the story: the long end is repricing fiscal and inflation risk, not policy. With PCE on Wednesday and payrolls on Friday, here is what the long end is really saying.

【Daily Brief】30-year Treasury tops 5.59%, S&P 500 slips to 7,670 and gold holds $4,180 — PCE lands tonight The 30-year Treasury yield closed at 5.59%, its highest since June 2002, and the Dow fell 131.59 points to 51,349.92. US consumer confidence dropped to 81.9, a 12-year low, and JOLTS job openings fell to 7.1 million. August PCE and Q3 GDP both land at 8:30am ET tonight.

Author Suzie

7 hours ago

The 30-year Treasury yield closed at 5.59%, its highest since June 2002, and the Dow fell 131.59 points to 51,349.92. US consumer confidence dropped to 81.9, a 12-year low, and JOLTS job openings fell to 7.1 million. August PCE and Q3 GDP both land at 8:30am ET tonight.

Popular Symbols