100 Shares of These 10 Stocks Would Have Made You Incredibly Rich
The reality of stock investment is that there’s no better tool for building your wealth over time. The average return on the S&P 500 comes out to about 10% a year, and with plenty of patience, a low-cost ETF can turn a person’s relatively modest savings into a happy, healthy retirement fund. When it comes to stock picks, Warren Buffet did a little better than a retirement fund, so why can’t you?
Read: 3 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000
Hindsight: 10 Stocks That Would Have Made You Rich
Looking at the biggest market success stories in recent memory, this stock market analysis determines how much you could have made by buying 100 shares at the right time. Each stock was examined over a period of around 10 years when performance was exceptional. From there, the study calculated the total return to the investor over that time.
Granted, it’s generally not a good idea to obsess too much over opportunities missed. However, as this is a retrospective look at how certain stock prices could have influenced your personal finances, learning from the past could help influence your future investments. So, here are 10 companies that have been very kind to investors over the years, along with how much you could have made had you bought in at the right time.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Netflix
Apple
Priceline Group
Amazon
Tesla
Monster Beverage
Facebook
Lululemon
Microsoft
1. Chipotle Mexican Grill
Dates covered: Jan. 23, 2010, to Jan. 23, 2020
Your investment: $9,777 — 100 shares at $97.77
Your investment after 10 years: $87,984 — 100 shares at $879.84
Total profit: $78,207
For most Americans, Chipotle is a great fast-casual restaurant. For at least a handful of others, though, it’s much more. Bill Ackman is one of the best-known hedge fund managers in the world for his Pershing Square Capital Partners, and Chipotle is a big part of the reason for that. Ackman and Pershing Square were lucky enough to see potential in the chain early on and made a big investment that has paid off in stock trades and share prices.
2. Netflix
Dates covered: June 20, 2008, to June 20, 2018
Your investment: $449 — 100 shares at $4.49
Your investment after 10 years: $41,676 — 100 shares at $416.76
Total profit: $41,227
Netflix has become wildly successful by essentially being the first in the streaming video space — a space that Grand View Research pegged at being worth $36.64 billion in 2018 and growing to $330.51 billion by 2030.
However, when Netflix first announced it was shifting its focus primarily to video streaming in 2011, it was a disaster. The stock plunged a stunning 80%, 800,000 people dropped their subscriptions and everyone was pretty sure Reed Hastings and company were fools for not sticking with their sure-fire business model of mailing people DVDs. Well, their short-term sight did not match what the long-term investors gained.
3. Apple
Dates covered: Jan. 23, 2010, to Jan. 23, 2020
Your investment: $2,458 — 100 shares at $24.58 (pre-stock split)
Your investment after 10 years: $31,923 — 100 shares at $319.23 (pre-stock split)
Total profit: $29,465
The question for Apple is really which 10-year period to focus on. Clearly, plenty of money was made during its first rise to fame with personal computers. The largest 10-year percentage return likely falls when they rolled out the iPod, iPhone and iPad. However, the company’s recent ascent into the stratosphere as they took the revolutionary products from that period and focused on turning them into a rock-solid cash machine is the one that provides the largest total profit on 100 shares.
4. Priceline Group
Dates covered: March 12, 2008, to March 12, 2018
Your investment: $12,094 — 100 shares at $120.94
Your investment after 10 years: $220,609 — 100 shares at $2,206.09
Total profit: $208,515
If you’re looking for a bargain on a flight or hotel, Priceline might be among your first stops. If you’re looking for a bargain on a stock, though, that ship has sailed.
That’s because this company, which is now owned by Booking Holdings, has been one of the most successful stocks to buy in the last couple of decades. While that might be surprising to some people, it speaks to how the company managed to position itself at the nexus of a few different trends: namely the internet and discount travel sites.
5. Amazon
Dates covered: Sept. 27, 2008, to Sept. 27, 2018
Your investment: $7,070 — 100 shares at $70.70 (pre-stock split)
Your investment after 10 years: $201,298 — 100 shares at $2,012.98 (pre-stock split)
Total profit: $194,228
Amazon’s story is fairly similar to that of Netflix. Namely, the company managed to foresee a market trend early enough to position itself as the largest player in the market before anyone else. Today, virtually everyone can agree that online retail is the future of the industry, and Amazon controls roughly half of the entire pie.
That’s part of why the company that was once just a bookseller has now become the most valuable retail company in history. Amazon’s success has been so incredible that it crossed $1 trillion in market value in 2020. It currently sits at around $960 billion in market value and is one of the top five most valuable companies in the world.
6. Tesla
Dates covered: June 29, 2010, to Jan. 23, 2020
Your investment: $2,389 — 100 shares at $23.89 (pre-stock split)
Your investment after 10 years: $57,220 — 100 shares at $572.20 (pre-stock split)
Total profit: $54,831
Tesla has become the premier “battleground” stock of the era. The term refers to a company where there’s strong disagreement over its future prospects, prompting considerable argument amongst analysts and investors. So, while Tesla’s stock has been on a wild tear, it also has a notable short float — that is, the percentage of shares represented by people betting the stock will fall.
As a result, anyone who bought 100 shares at the IPO has made a mint on Wall Street. It’s just another example of the law of the greater fool. That is to say, no matter how foolish a purchase might seem in the present, as long as someone comes along to pay you more than you did, it’s a smart buy.
7. Monster Beverage
Dates covered: Jan. 26, 2008, to Jan. 26, 2018
Your investment: $683 — 100 shares at $6.83
Your investment after 10 years: $6,891 — 100 shares at $68.91
Total profit: $6,208
The stock for Monster Beverage has been going like it consumed a few too many energy drinks. The company has produced a, well, monster return of some 70,000% over the last 20 years. And regardless of whether or not that has you feeling deeply afraid for the general health and caffeine intake of the American public, it doesn’t change the fact that few investors have done better than those that put their free cash flow behind this stock.
8. Facebook
Dates covered: May 18, 2012, to Jan. 17, 2020
Your investment: $3,823 — 100 shares at $38.23
Your investment after 10 years: $22,214 — 100 shares at $222.14
Total profit: $18,391
For anyone who’s reached this point and is cursing themselves for spending all their time scrolling through Facebook when they should have been researching stocks, well, you might have been killing two birds with one stone.
That said, if you bought the stock after its IPO, lost patience when it sank and then sold, there’s not a lot to say other than you needed to be more patient. Since then, the Facebook, now Meta, stock has grown at an impressive rate.
9. Lululemon
Dates covered: Jan. 22, 2010, to Jan. 22, 2020
Your investment: $1,502 — 100 shares at $15.02
Your investment after 10 years: $24,430 — 100 shares at $244.30
Total profit: $22,928
If your budget couldn’t find room for Lululemon stock 10 years ago, you probably should have found a new budget. A stretchy one that could have accommodated the purchase.
That’s because the athleisure brand has positively exploded across the American consciousness at that time and brought its shareholders with it. Why? Simply put, people just can’t get enough yoga pants. The company’s stock keeps soaring because its earnings keep exceeding expectations.
10. Microsoft
Dates covered: Jan. 23, 2010, to Jan. 23, 2020
Your investment: $2,279 — 100 shares at $22.79
Your investment after 10 years: $16,672 — 100 shares at $166.72
Total profit: $14,393
Clearly, investing in Microsoft in the early 1990s is as great an investment as has ever existed. The wealth created by the world’s first software company has kept Bill Gates as a permanent fixture among the richest people in the world for decades.
But if you think you missed your chance to cash in on Microsoft when you decided it was more important to get those Spin Doctors tickets, you might have missed out on an even bigger payday recently. The stock is currently experiencing a resurgence around its cloud computing business that has pushed its market cap to over $1.87 trillion early this year.
Final Take
While there’s very little chance that hand-picking your own stocks will match market returns in the long run, certain stocks have absolutely crushed the S&P 500 for a decade or more. Even if you had a portfolio manager, foreseeing which stocks are about to set the world on fire is not easy. But there’s always that ever-elusive chance to turn a few shrewd investments into a vast fortune.
Caitlyn Moorhead contributed to the reporting for this article.
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 100 Shares of These 10 Stocks Would Have Made You Incredibly Rich
