If You Bought 1 Share of MicroStrategy at Its IPO, Here's How Many Shares You Would Own Now

MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) first went public in June 1998 as a business-to-business enterprise software company ahead of the dot-com bubble. MicroStrategy's stock, along with its business model, has changed drastically over time.

It became the first publically traded company to purchase Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) in 2020, and has been the second-best performing S&P 500 stock since then, including outperforming the likes of Nvidia.

Let's take a look at how many shares MicroStrategy investors would hold today as a result of its stock splits if they held since its initial public offering.

MicroStrategy stock split history

MicroStrategy has seen multiple stock splits since its IPO, including a reverse stock split. After going public in 1998, its stock surged alongside other dot-com stocks, prompting management to issue a 2-for-1 stock split. However, when the bubble burst, the company carried out a 1-for-10 reverse split in 2002 to maintain the minimum price required for a Nasdaq listing.

Data source: Investing.com.

In 2020, everything changed when now-Executive Chairman Michael Saylor decided to purchase $250 million of Bitcoin, making MicroStrategy the first publicly traded company to do so. The company had excess cash but faced slowing revenue growth. Since then, the company has acquired 252,220 bitcoins at a total cost of $9.9 billion, using primarily leverage and equity.

The bet has paid off so far, as MicroStrategy's $15.9 billion Bitcoin hoard has launched its market capitalization to over $37 billion, prompting a 10-for-1 stock split in August 2024. So if you held on to the stock since the company went public, you would now have two shares valued at approximately $186 apiece for each IPO share.

And since MicroStrategy went public at a split-adjusted IPO price of $6 per share, your investment would have delivered a 3,000% return.

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Collin Brantmeyer has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Nasdaq. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.