If You Invested $1,000 In Amazon Stock When Amazon Prime Was Launched, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

One of the most successful retailers and ecommerce companies of all time is Amazon.com Inc AMZN. The company went public in 1997 and survived the dot-com boom that wiped out the valuations and existence of many ecommerce and internet companies of the 1990s.

One item that helped the company was the launch of Amazon Prime, which also rewarded investors along the way.

What Happened: Amazon launched Amazon Prime on Feb. 2, 2005. The subscription service came with a price of $79 annually and gave subscribers free two-day shipping on the majority of purchases.

Amazon Prime subscribers have also been rewarded with perks over the years like Amazon Music, Amazon Prime Video and other services.

Amazon launched Prime Day, which gave members of the subscription service huge one-day price deals on popular items, in an event that has been compared to Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

At the time of the launch, Amazon charged $9.48 for two-day shipping on orders. Customers who purchased Amazon Prime made their money back in free shipping alone with nine orders.

Over the years, Amazon has raised the price of Prime and also added features for subscribers. Prime was also given a monthly cost after previously only being available as a one-time annual purchase.

Amazon announced with its fourth quarter earnings that the cost of Prime will be raised from $12.99 to $14.99 for monthly subscribers and from $119 to $139 for annual subscribers.

Amazon said it had over 200 million subscribers as of April 2021.

Related Link: Amazon Q4 Earnings Takeaways: Holiday Costs, Prime Price Hike, Stock Soars

If You Invested $1,000: Amazon has had many catalysts over the years since going public in 1997. One of the biggest for investors to recognize could have been the launch of Amazon Prime.

The offering was meant to take on large retailers and provide fast shipping to consumers.

AMZN stock traded at a high of $43.54 on Feb. 2, 2005. A $1,000 investment could have purchased 22.97 shares of Amazon on the day of the Prime announcement.

The $1,000 investment would be worth $72,419.59 today based on a price of $3,152.79 for AMZN at the time of writing.

Shares are up 7,142% since the launch of Prime, giving investors who took advantage of the key catalyst an average annual return of 446.4% over the last 16 years.