If You Invested $1,000 In Apple Ten Years Ago, Here's What Your Profit Would Be Today

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is literally the 800-pound-gorilla in the room of stock trading. Thanks to its market capitalization of around $3.67 trillion, the company currently claims the distinction of being the most valuable company on earth. Computer and technology founder Steve Jobs' Apple corporation did not accomplish this extraordinary feat through sheer luck.

The tech titan has frequently held the post of most profitable business in the world in the past decade. Its incredible growth in earnings has yielded phenomenal results for both the company and the investors in its stock. Apple enjoys this performance thanks in no small part to its dominant position in a number of segments in the consumer electronics markets.

Anyone who believed in Apple over the last 10 years and stayed the course through its sometimes wild yearly price swings has reaped tremendous rewards. One thousand dollars invested in the technology juggernaut 10 years ago yielded profits of over 914%, per Yahoo! Finance. The company has dramatically outperformed the S&P 500 over the same time frame. Apple makes a solid holding in an IRA or Roth IRA account.

At the heart of the incredible Apple profit-making giant lies the firm's line of iPhones. These market leading devices and their accessories usually make up the majority of worldwide smartphone sales revenue, even though a great number of competitors take on Apple. It is this phenomenal brand strength and fanatically loyal customer base that gives the company its enviable ability to maintain average selling price points that are much higher than its competitors. Apple claims the vast majority of global operating profits from smartphones, per Nasdaq.

Besides its commanding lead in the mobile sector, Apple enjoys strong results from its other consumer devices, services, software, and wearables. The firm produces a large range of popular electronics products including many in categories it actually invented. Among these devices are iPad tablets, Mac PCs, AirPods, Apple Watch smartwatches, and Apple TV television boxes.

In the service arena, Apple delivers a vast range from which to choose. Consumers can take advantage of the company's Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud, iTunes, Apple Care, Apple Car, Apple Arcade, and Apple Pay to name a few. The firm's various products also power semiconductors and internally developed software. Apple corporation sells its vast product lineup through both third party merchandisers and Apple-owned company stores. With 40% of its revenues derived from the Americas, it earns the other 60% from its powerful presence in overseas markets.

Among Apple's large investors are many famous names. Institutional investors hold over 62% of the stock. Some of its big name investors are Vanguard Group, Blackrock, State Street Corp, Morgan Stanley, Jpmorgan Chase & Co, Norges Bank, and Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway. Buffet is such a believer in the Apple company that he keeps roughly 24% of his entire portfolio (owning about 300 million shares) in Apple's stock, per the Motley Fool article on Nasdaq. This remains his largest single investment holding.

If you had invested $1,000 in Apple 10 years ago, you would have benefited from both enormous price appreciation and consistent dividend payouts in the stock. One thousand dollars of Apple stock bought 10 years ago has grown to $9,368, while the dividends on these shares amounted to $775, per Yahoo! Finance. The investment would have grown to $10,143 in the last quarter of 2024. It generated a total profit equating to a 914.3% gain, an average of more than 91% per year. By comparison the S&P 500 has returned around 257.5% in this same 10 year timeframe. Apple stock made an ideal holding in a retirement savings plan.

The incredible success of Apple and its stock over the past decade would not have necessarily meant a smooth ride all along the way though. The company's last 52 week price range has been as high as $250.80 and as low as $164.07, per Nasdaq. Even the legendary stock of Apple can suffer market corrections.