If You Invested $1,000 In Coca-Cola 10 Years Ago, Here's How Rich You'd Be Today

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is a top iconic brand in the world today. With global drink offerings including Fanta, Sprite, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and Coca-Cola, the company boasted a last fiscal year revenue total of $43 billion. Coke achieved this thanks to its impressive presence in over 200 countries where it sells over two billion soft drinks a day, per Yahoo Finance.

Coca-Cola has come a long way from its humble beginnings. When pharmacist Dr. John Stith invented the flagship drink in Atlanta, Georgia in 1886, the product retailed for five cents a glass at the pharmacy's soda fountain. During his time, Coke sold only nine drinks each day. When Pemberton died in 1888, he had not lived to see its wild increase in popularity.

These days Coca-Cola holds the coveted position of top selling soft drink in the world, per World Population Review. Investors who took a stake in the soft drinks behemoth a decade ago were rewarded. One thousand dollars invested in the company 10 years ago is worth over $2,029 today, per Yahoo Finance.

Today's Coca-Cola Company sells its main products in over 200 nations and territories around the globe. Besides industry leading-brands Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite, the corporation owns drinks in coffee, tea, sport drinks, and water categories. These beverages include Costa, Gold Peak, Georgia, Ayataka, Powerade, Body Armor, Topo Chico, Dasani, Vitaminwater, and Smartwater.

The firm is continuously updating and changing its portfolio, allowing it to stay relevant in shifting markets. Coca-Cola owns and sells juices, dairy, and plant-based beverages as well. These include Minute Maid, Innocent, Simply, Fairlife, Del Valle, and AdeS. The Coca-Cola company has been willing to make radical changes to product lines such as by reducing sugar in its sugary drinks, according to the company webpage.

This flexibility and resourcefulness has led the company to tremendous success. Today the Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners together boast over 700,000 employees around the world. If one of your ancestors had purchased a single original share of the stock in 1919 for $40, today you would have more than 320,000 shares valued in excess of $19.5 million. This tremendous success story is a good example of why avoiding the stock market is a bad retirement move, even for older adults.

While Coca-Cola has done well over the last 10 years, its chief rival Pepsi has outperformed it. If you had taken a $1,000 stake in Pepsi in 2014, the holding would be worth $2,714.63 at the end of 2024. It amounts to a total return of 171.46% for 10.48% annually.

Still, holding Coca-Cola for 10 years would have paid off for investors. If you invested $1,000 in April of 2014, your Coca-Cola stake would have grown to $2,029.55 in 10 years time. This solid 103% rate of return equates to 7.23% annually, according to Yahoo Finance. Neither of the two soft drink giants' investments would have done as well as if you had invested $1,000 in Facebook or if you had invested $1,000 in Apple, though.

The hard part of reaping this return is holding on to the stock through good and bad times. Coca-Cola's stock trajectory has not been straight upwards. In just the last year, its 52 week high was $73.53 per share while it reached a 52 week low of $57.93, per the NYSE where Coca-Cola shares trade. Even the world's leading soft drinks maker experiences market volatility from time to time.