If You Invested $1,000 In Amazon Stock At IPO 26 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Leading ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc AMZN is one of the most valuable companies on the face of the earth. Years ago, the company was unprofitable and valued at less than $500 million. While it’s hard to believe the company once was that small, every great company has to start somewhere.

Here’s a look back at the company’s IPO and how investors have done if they stuck around with their Amazon shares.

What Happened: Amazon went public on May 15, 1997 with an initial price offering. The company offered shares at a price point of $18 and a company valuation of around $300 million.

A look back at Amazon at the time of its IPO shows that the company had around 80,000 average daily visits to its website, 256 employees and annual revenue of $15.8 million.

In its IPO filing, Amazon said it was “the leading online retailer of books.”

“Amazon strives to offer its customers compelling value through innovative use of technology, broad selection, high-quality content, a high level of customer service, competitive pricing and personalized services,” the filing also said.

The company had 340,000 customer accounts from 100 countries at the time of its public offering filing.

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Amazon was founded in 1995 by Jeff Bezos after he quit his job at an investment firm to open an online book store called Amazon.com. Bezos moved to Seattle, drafting the initial business plan for Amazon during his cross-country trip from New York to Seattle. In 1995, around 300 of Bezos’ friends performed beta testing for Amazon.com.

The rest, as they say, is history. Amazon is now the fifth most valuable public company with a market capitalization of $1.17 trillion.

The company has grown through new product offerings like Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Web Services and through expanding internationally. Amazon has also been aggressive with acquisitions over the years, acquiring companies like Alexa, Audible, Twitch, Whole Foods, Pill Pack and MGM.

Investing $1,000 in Amazon IPO: Investors who bought Amazon shares at the time of the company’s IPO have done quite well, but also would have had to weather through the dot-com bubble. A bubble of tech companies, including many dot-com names, wiped out competitors of Amazon and also saw shares of the ecommerce company fall significantly.

Investors who bought $1,000 of Amazon shares at the time of its IPO could have bought 18.55 AMZN shares based on the $18 price point.

Stock splits of Amazon in June 1998 (2:1), January 1999 (3:1), September 1999 (2:1) and June 2022 (20:1) would have turned the 18.55 AMZN shares into 13,334.4 shares today.

Based on a price of $113.92 for Amazon shares at the time of writing, the $1,000 investment would be worth $1,519,054.85 today.

Not a bad return for investing $1,000 in an unprofitable online bookseller.

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