If You Invested $1,000 In Microsoft At Its IPO, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

One of the best-performing technology stocks of all time is Microsoft Corporation MSFT, one of the select companies that have hit a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion.

Now with the company valued at over $2 trillion, here's a look back at how investors would have done investing in the Microsoft IPO.

What Happened: Among the most well-known companies in the world thanks to its properties Windows, Bing, Xbox, MSN, Skype, LinkedIn and Microsoft Word, Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen as a software company in 1975.

After years of success and growth, Microsoft went public on March 13, 1986, with an IPO price of $21. Over 2.5 million shares were traded on the company's IPO day. Shares of Microsoft closed the first day of trading at $27.75.

Over time, the company continued its growth through new products like the Xbox and acquisitions of entities like Skype and LinkedIn.

The company continues to be a leader today in many sectors and is betting aggressively on the transition to cloud services and the growth of artificial intelligence use cases.

In early 2023, Microsoft invested an additional $10 billion in ChatGPT parent OpenAI, which became a large catalyst for the artificial intelligence sector and helped kick off a bull run in AI-related stocks.

Here's a look back at investing in the IPO.

Related Link: Microsoft Q1 Earnings Spotlight: Revenue Beat, EPS Jumps 27%, Rapid AI Infusion

Investing $1,000 in Microsoft IPO: Based on an IPO price of $21, an investor could have purchased 47.6 shares with a $1,000 investment.

Shares of Microsoft went through a series of stock splits that included 2-for-1 stock splits in 1987 and 1990. Those stock splits were followed by 3-for-2 splits in 1991 and 1992. Microsoft also conducted 2-for-1 stock splits in 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2003.

Those 47.6 shares of Microsoft would have turned into 13,708.80 shares. thanks to the series of stock splits.

The $1,000 investment would be worth $4,521,299.33 today based on a price of $329.81 for Microsoft shares at the time of writing.

Microsoft was said to have turned thousands of employees into millionaires thanks to the rising value of its stock. Investors who got in early could have also become millionaires without ever working for the company.

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