Search engines had already existed when Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to take a chance by thinking up and presenting the world with Google.
That risk paid off: 20 years later, the pair are worth more than $100 billion combined, according to the Forbes’ 400 list, and Google is a household name.
If you had taken a chance and invested in Google in 2007, you might not have made billions, but still, your choice would have been a wise one — indeed, it’s one even Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive officer Warren Buffett says he regrets not making.
That’s because you could have roughly tripled your money: A $1,000 investment in Google, as represented by its parent company Alphabet in the below graphic, in 2007, would be worth $2,922 as of October 31.
The data comes from financial website How Much, which looked at popular stocks in 2007 to find out how much a $1,000 investment in each would be worth now.
Google’s performance came in just shy of Nike’s and Starbucks’.
In the graphic, the blue dots are equivalent to a $1,000 initial investment, and the pink dots equal the investment’s current total value.
“The larger the pink circle, the more your investment is worth,” according to How Much. “If the pink fits inside the blue, then you lost money. The [graphic] assumes that you took any dividend paid out in cash and did not reinvest into the company by buying more stock.”
Keep in mind, though, that while Google’s stock has performed well, any individual stock can over- or under-perform and past returns do not predict future results.
These days, Google is coping withwidespread frustration about its parent company Alphabet’s inability to identify and remove offensive content from YouTube, as well as claims from the Department of Labor that a gender pay gap exists among Google employees.
Still, investors are bullish on the company as it continues to expand its reach beyond Internet search and into phones, virtual assistants, and productivity and entertainment services.
As Rob Sanderson, an analyst at research firm MKM Partners recently wrote, Alphabet “should provide investors with reliable gains into 2018 and beyond. … The company continues to deliver exceptional growth for a company its size.”
If you’re interested in investing in Google, or just considering getting into the stock market, experts advise beginning carefully. Buffett and other experienced investors such as Mark Cuban and Tony Robbins suggest you start with index funds.
Index funds hold every stock in an index such as the S&P 500 and offer low turnover rates, attendant fees and tax bills. They also fluctuate with the market and eliminate the risk of picking individual stocks.
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Video by Mary Stevens
If you invested ,000 in Google 10 years ago, here’s how much you’d have now