Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been one of the greatest stock market stories in history. It was, at various times in recent years, the most valuable company in the world, and its current No. 2 spot behind chipmaker Nvidia is not too shabby.
It’s a great example of a stock that might have looked to some investors like it had already peaked 10 years ago. Yet if you had invested $10,000 in Apple at the time, your position would be worth a lot more money today.
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The rise of the iPhone
Believe it or not, the iPhone has only been around since 2007. Today, there are 1.6 billion active iPhones worldwide, and people continue to buy the smartphones at a rapid rate.
Apple as a whole has been reporting robust growth despite inflation, and the market is recognizing that its less capital-investment-intense approach to artificial intelligence (AI) was a smart strategy. Apple stock is up almost 16% this year, outperforming the S&P 500, which is up by almost 12%.
Over the past 10 years, though, it has gained more than 1,000%, and if you include reinvested dividends, its total return is almost 1,200%. That’s nearly four times the S&P 500’s total return.
So if you’d invested $10,000 in Apple a decade ago, reinvested your dividends and held on through the ups and downs, you’d have a position worth $129,000 today. Apple isn’t likely to repeat that type of performance over the next decade, considering its current $4.6 trillion market cap, but it can still offer value to long-term investors.
Should you buy stock in Apple right now?
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