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Stock "What If" Calculator: US Stocks 1970–2024

"If only I'd bought Apple back then…" Everyone has played that game. Here it is with real numbers: split- and dividend-adjusted year-end prices for 20 major US companies, from Apple, Nvidia and Tesla to Coca-Cola and GE. Pick a company and a year and see what your money would be worth.

$1,000 in each stock at the end of 2000

Just as the dot-com bubble began to burst, the same $1,000 ended up hundreds of times apart 24 years later, depending on where it went.

CompanyValue end of 2024Multiple
Apple$1,117,3741,117x
Nvidia$1,072,7181,073x
Amazon$281,956282x
Microsoft$31,58331.6x
Procter & Gamble$8,1108.11x
Walmart$7,8837.88x
ExxonMobil$5,3025.30x
Johnson & Johnson$5,1885.19x
IBM$5,0705.07x
3M$5,0035.00x
Disney$5,0005.00x
Boeing$4,1054.10x
Coca-Cola$4,0564.06x
GE$1,3201.32x
Ford$9450.95x

$1,000 in each stock ten years ago (end of 2014)

CompanyValue end of 2024Multiple
Nvidia$279,063279x
Tesla$27,23627.2x
Netflix$18,26418.3x
Amazon$14,13814.1x
Microsoft$10,56810.6x
Apple$10,18810.2x
Meta (Facebook)$7,5337.53x
Google (Alphabet)$7,1607.16x
Walmart$3,8553.86x
Procter & Gamble$2,4382.44x
IBM$2,2062.21x
Coca-Cola$2,0272.03x
Philip Morris$2,0122.01x
Johnson & Johnson$1,8231.82x
ExxonMobil$1,7991.80x
GE$1,6031.60x
Boeing$1,5571.56x
3M$1,3161.32x
Disney$1,2841.28x
Ford$1,0711.07x

Some companies multiplied many times over while others barely beat the starting line. It all looks obvious now, but almost nobody could have called this order at the end of 2014.

Company pages

Each page has returns for every purchase year, the best and worst years, and how long it took to recover after buying at a peak.

How it's calculated

Looks easy in hindsight?

Knowing the ending, everyone would have bought Apple and Nvidia. Hide the names, show only the mood of the time, and it gets a lot harder. Travel through ten turning points since 1970 and invest for yourself.