“I bought my first Apple computer in 1984,” Stephen Mayo writes for Seeking Alpha. “It was the Mac Plus, the revolutionary computer that made popular the idea of icon based user interfaces.”
MacDailyNews Note: The Mac Plus wasn’t introduced until January 16, 1986.
“The stock, at the high for the year, would have cost me about $2,800.00… about the price of the computer,” Mayo writes. “Over the years I’ve bought more Macs than I can even remember. So it is pretty clear that if I’d just matched each purchase of product with an equal purchase of stock I’d be, by my modest standards, independently wealthy.”
“So why didn’t I do that? I’m stupid, clearly,” Mayo writes. “So why am I now buying my first shares of Apple?”
“Apple has more cash on hand than the United States government, and just about any government in the world Mayo writes,” Mayo writes. “As of April 23, 2014 Bank of America claimed Apple has twice as much cash on hand as the U.S. Government [sic government].)”
“Apple appears to be on the verge of a long run of dividend increases making it a possible Dividend Monster,” Mayo writes. “In fact, given the company’s unique history, would it surprise anyone if in twenty years it was the single best dividend stock in the history of the market?”
More reasons why Mayo bought AAPL in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $.47 per share of AAPL common stock. The dividend is payable on August 14, 2014, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 11, 2014.
Got in at $18 in 1997. That’s about a 4400% increase since then.:)
Lucky you 🙂
Wish I’d bought Apple then instead of the dot com bubble shares i bought at the time.
I’m self employed…so this is my retirement fund. You sure as hell don’t make that kind of return on mutual funds!
If a financial adviser suggests I liquidate and invest in other more stable and long term funds, I instantly discredit their credibility.:)
The minute I heard Steve Jobs was back in, I was in.
Brilliant and prescient move. I was so excited when Steve returned and revitalized the products and company. I remember visits in 1998 and 1999 to a local store and fawning over the new colorful iMacs. I sure wish I made the logical leap of faith from the products to the stock at that time, but did not know much about stocks back then. Yet I am always happy to hear about the true believers who invested in the company in the 1990’s when 99% of the world was giving up on the company. It is one of the greatest stories of business history when you consider how great their products are and how close the world came to being relegated to a single choice of Microsoft for their computers, media files and players, phones, tablets, etc.
His Mac Plus was probably a Fat Mac.
My thoughts exactly. That’s the Mac I bought as a college Freshman in 1984: the 512K Mac aka “Fat Mac.”
So people are supposed to follow this guy’s opinion on Seeking Alpha, even though he’s missed out completely on one of the great stocks of the past decade? Okay…
Yeah, the phrase he put on his resumé here was “Clearly I’m stupid.” 🙂
It is, S.A. after all, and the home of Rocky.
I bought ten shares over a year period in ’07, ranging from $87 to around $130. Those converted to 70 shares recently, whereupon, I bought three more with a bit if additional cash added to the dividend money from the paid dividends recently.
My hoard is now worth over a 440% gain from the regional purchase prices.
I do wish I’d had more to invest. That’s one hell of a return in the stock market!
You are making all the right moves. I believe Warren Buffet would describe your Apple strategy and investing decisions as “Brilliant.”
Damn. “Original” purchase prices…
Imagine what life would be like if instead of charging taxes of it’s citizens the government paid dividends to them….
Wouldn’t government have to own industry to do so? I’m pretty sure we don’t want that… Nice thought though.
Well, the State of Alaska pays its citizens a dividend each year from the interest earned on their Permanent Fund. Essentially wise heads put oil industry taxes into a bank account rather than doling it out to projects. Since then the fund’s balance has grown every year since the charter requires that interest be first plowed back in to the fund to the degree needed to inflation-proof the fund, and then whatever is left over is paid back out to the residents.
Well said. It was designed to protect the oil money from the politicians. They, the politicians, have tried to raid the account several times. Each time successfully squashed by the people. I have collected the dividend since the beginning.
I did, too, up until ’96 when I moved out of state and abided by letter of the law! 🙂
You mean like what Hong Kong has done in the past:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_$6,000
Imagine if you really knew what you were talking about.
I dollar cost averaged with forty four separate purchases over ten years.
I can’t remember all the idiots who told me I was “throwing my money away.” I now have more money than any of them.
Microsoft just lost 20 billion on Skype and Nokia. Then another 10 billion on xbone, 10 billion on vista, 15 billion on metro/zune OS, 8 billion on Surface, 6 billion on windoze phone. Not to mention al the other billions upon billions wasted on bing, Live and MSN.
Post-Ballmer, they’re more like $100 billion in the red.
Where did you get those figures from? Your rear end?
It came from a professional analist.
Bought at $12. Then it split!
That list is Rubbish, there is no way the beggar nation Isreal got $80 billion in cash, if they are so well off so how come they beg money from US tax payers every year. Also Germany is a rich nation with great manufacturing background, but the stupid oust makes it loon inferior to Israel which is rubbish
Careful, you’re skirting the line there doggy. A little bit of anti semitism doesn’t go a long way.
Am being factual, that list with the figures is rubbish. Iraq the shit hole more prosperous then Germany, no way