If You Invested $1,000 in Apple Stock in 2012, It Would Be Worth This Much Today
Written by
Josephine Nesbit
Edited by
Nicholas Morine
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The past decade, or even several decades, have been good for Apple investors. According to Apple’s Q1 earnings report for 2024, company revenue is up 3%, while quarterly earnings per diluted share are up 16% year-over-year. But what if you invested $1,000 over a decade ago?
On March 9, 2012, Apple announced plans to reinstate its dividend. The day after, shares traded for around $600 each. If your broker allowed the purchase of fractional shares back then, you could have bought one and two-thirds shares for $1,000, according to The Motley Fool. Since then, Apple split its stock twice: 7-for-1 in 2014 and 4-for-1 in 2020. Consequently, you’d have 46 and two-thirds shares today from the original $1,000 purchase. Today, those shares would be worth $8,700.
But, if you reinvested your $361.65 in dividend payments over the past 14 years, The Fool said you’d now have 55 shares worth approximately $10,300.
Is it Too Late To Invest In Apple?
Even if you didn’t invest in Apple in 2012, it’s not too late to capitalize on the company’s growth.
Although Apple stock is down this year, thanks to weak iPhone sales, The Fool noted that sales could come late this year with the release of the iPhone 16. Two segments have also recently given Apple’s sales and profits a boost: services and wearables, according to Investor’s Business Daily. In December, Apple’s services revenue increased 11% to $23.1 billion, and hardware sales rose to $96.5 billion. Apple’s services include the App Store, AppleCare, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and other offerings.
The company is also cash-rich with modest debt. The Fool pointed out that Apple has a market capitalization of just under $3 trillion, and it’s the most profitable company in the world. On top of the company’s net income of $97 billion last fiscal year, it has a little over $60 billion worth of cash or highly liquid cash-like holdings in its books. In terms of debt, the company has less than $100 billion in long-term debt, and $49 billion in other long-term liabilities. While this is a huge amount of debt, it’s not bad for a company of Apple’s size.
The Fool also noted that the company’s business model is evolving from a focus on devices to a cultural and solutions-oriented one. Apple is expanding its digital ecosystem, which drives hardware and software sales, so we could see a shift in the growth of its services branch.
Another reason to invest in Apple: it’s Apple. There may be declines over the short term, but the company has built one of the most loyal fanbases in the world over decades, and those fans are unlikely to vanish overnight.
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