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

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) can be a fun place to shop. In exchange for an annual membership fee, it offers low-priced products its customers want. It can also be a fun stock. Following solid financial results this year, the stock price recently hit a new all-time high of $1,008.

But let's find out how many shares an investor would have today (and what they would be worth) if the investor bought just one share when the company went public on Dec. 5, 1985.

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How to turn $10 into $5,748

Costco went public at $10 per share. One share would have turned into six shares after its three stock splits, making its post-split IPO price $1.67. At the current share price of around $958, an IPO buy of one share would be worth roughly $5,748.

Buying just one share of a stock back then would have been uncommon since most broker commissions were around $50 or more. Still, the steep commissions on a $10 stock would have been worth it given the future value of the investment.

The dividend wouldn't be much, but a one-share investor would also be receiving $27.84 in passive income every year. That doesn't count the occasional special dividend, with Costco most recently distributing an extra $15 to shareholders in January 2024. An investor would have recouped the original cost, including commissions, multiple times over just with all the dividends since 2004.

Costco was originally part of Price Club, which opened its first store in 1976 and pioneered the warehouse club model. Its margins are so low that last quarter's membership fee revenue of $1.16 billion was about half of the company's $2.2 billion operating profit. Memberships continue to grow, with 77 million paid household members at the end of the most recent quarter.

The stock trades at the highest earnings multiple in its history, so it's probably best to wait for a lower price to buy shares. However, Costco still has the opportunity to grow the value of a share much further.

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John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.