Walking Away On Top, If You Invested $1,000 In Amazon When Bezos Stepped Down, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Jeff Bezos founded ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc AMZN in 1994 and led the company as CEO for many years before stepping down in 2021.

Here’s a look at how Amazon stock has done since Bezos stepped down.

What Happened: After 27 years leading Amazon, Bezos officially stepped down on July 5, 2021. The day Bezos left the company came exactly 27 years from the day the company was founded.

Bezos announced his plan to step aside in February 2021 and said that Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy would lead the company after he was gone. Bezos went on to become the executive chairman of Amazon.

“We chose that date because it’s sentimental for me, the day Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago,” Bezos said in 2021.

The move was significant, as Bezos founded the company and led the online retailer through years of explosive growth to become one of the largest companies in the world and one of the few companies to hit a market capitalization of over $1 trillion.

Making Jassy the CEO of Amazon could have also coincided with the company’s focus on the growth of its cloud division.

Related Link: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Jeff Bezos 

Investing $1,000 in Amazon: The market was closed on July 5, 2021 when Bezos stepped down as CEO to coincide with the Fourth of July holiday the day before.

Amazon shares opened at $3,451.60 on July 6, 2021, the first day without Bezos as the CEO.

A $1,000 investment in Amazon stock at the time could have purchased 0.29 shares.

A 20-for-1 stock split on Amazon shares in June 2022 would have turned the 0.29 shares into 5.8 shares of Amazon stocks.

Based on a price of $100.70 for Amazon stock at the time of writing, the $1,000 investment would be worth $584.60 today.

This marks a drop of 41.6% on the hypothetical investment in 16 months.

What makes the timing of the hypothetical investment significant is the fact that Amazon shares hit an all-time high in July 2021 and have since fallen.

Bezos stepped down as CEO days before shares hit an all-time high.

With Amazon shares falling since Bezos left, the wealth of the company’s founder has also fallen. Bezos, who owns around 10% of Amazon shares, is ranked as the fourth-richest person in the world with a wealth of $124 billion. According to Bloomberg, Bezos’ wealth has dropped by $68.4 billion year-to-date.

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