If You Invested $1,000 In Facebook 12 Years Ago, Here's How Much Money You'd Have Today

Facebook is the primary product operated by Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). In only 20 years this revolutionary social media platform has dramatically shaped the way that people connect with their family, friends, and other community members and obtain information. Facebook's groundbreaking interface spread like wildfire in no small part due to members' ability to easily and rapidly share life updates, pictures, and other information with family and friends.

Mark Zuckerberg launched his company's flagship product as "The facebook" back in 2004 as a means to help connect students of Harvard University. It quickly expanded to cover Ivy League universities and other academic institutions throughout the United States and Canada. The interface's incredible success encouraged Zuckerberg and his co-founders to open the connecting platform to the world.

Facebook's subsequent progress of defining and taking over the world of social media was astonishing. Today it remains by far the world's biggest social network. If you had the foresight to buy Facebook stock on its IPO launch 12 years ago and hold on, today you would enjoy fantastic gains of more than 100% per year on an annualized basis.

Today Facebook counts an incredible 3.6 billion individuals as active monthly users. The company's platforms primarily include the Facebook app, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other features revolving around these interfaces. Facebook platforms allow members to interact with one another through sharing news, messages, videos, and pictures. Users have access to Facebook and its various other products through desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, and wearable internet devices.

Meta earns its revenues mainly through advertising that makes up over 90% of the company's total income. While half of this revenue comes from the United States and Canada, the company also derives 25% of its ad sales from Europe. Thanks to gross margins exceeding 80%, Meta boasts an over 30% profit margin, per Nasdaq's Meta page.

With an enormous market cap of over $1.5 trillion, Meta is an institution in the U.S. tech space. This leadership looks set to continue thanks to the 2021 launching of the Metaverse virtual reality world powered by artificial intelligence. Facebook recently revealed that it is producing proprietary AI chips to power ahead the Facebook and Instagram platforms in a bid to be less dependent on chipmaker Nvidia. The company is also building up a new product called Facebook Watch, a library made up of premium content it plans to monetize through subscription fees (like rival YouTube TV charges) and advertising. During the Q4 earnings announcement, Zuckerberg committed to creating the "most popular and most advanced AI products and services."

Facebook's success made enormous fortunes for founders and early investors. Mark Zuckerberg today boasts a net worth valued at over $170 billion. The CEO of Meta ranks in the top five wealthiest people on earth, per a Nasdaq article.

The company went public back in 2012, only eight years following the Facebook launch. If you had invested $1,000 at the IPO price 12 years ago on May 18, you could have acquired Meta/Facebook stock at $38 per share. The share price at the close of December 19, 2024 was $595.57, a gain of $557.57 per share. Your initial stake would have increased by more than 14.6 times in value and would now be worth $14,672, even with market corrections along the way.

Meta/Facebook stock has shown sometimes incredible volatility requiring persistence to enjoy these gains. The 52-week high and low ranged from $638.40 to $340.01 a share per Nasdaq's Meta page. As for whether Facebook is still a good investment at current price levels, analysts have a one year target of $660 per share, more than 10% higher than the December 19 close.