Magnificent 7.
Between bored stares at the stock market screen crawl, it’s a safe bet that many an investor — OK, most of us — will daydream about what it would be like to find the next Google, circa 2004. Or the next Alexion Pharmaceuticals, circa 1996. Alexion what? Stocks that make earnings history need not be household names, and Alexion’s drugs have returned more than 49 times its share price over two decades. From the kings of coffee and the princes of pharmacy to the rulers of retail here are seven stocks that have made shareholders love them so much they can hardly count the ways, let alone the digits on the ledger.
Altria Group (ticker: MO)
At the dawn of 1978, stock in the former Philip Morris traded for 56 cents a share, less than the cost of two packs of cigarettes. And while smokes have certainly gone up in price, Altria is smoking like a fiend: up an astounding 1,476 percent. That even takes into account a scary ride in 2008 when the stock lost 70 percent of its value in less than a month, though it’s headed steadily upward over the last seven years.
10 shares, 1978: $5.60
10 shares today: $679
Keurig Green Mountain
Keurig proved you can have a bomb and still be da bomb. It plunged 63 percent between January and November 2015 thanks to a new home soda system that met with scathing reviews. But grape soda is nothing compared to champagne, which ground-floor investors uncorked long ago. In 1993, it’s stock sold for 50 cents a share. When the firm went private in March, shareholders cashed out at $91.70: Toast that with coffee, rye or whatever else they put in K-cups these days.
10 shares, 1993: $5
10 shares, 2016: $917
Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN)
In creating drugs for ultra-rare immune system diseases, Alexion returns ultra-rare profits. You’ve likely never heard of (or can pronounce) paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria or atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome. But as the medication to these conditions, “Soliris is the first and only approved therapeutic,” says K.C. Ma, director of the Roland George Investments Institute at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. “Alexion has placed itself into a market with virtually no competitors. Soliris costs Medicare $400,000, per patient, per year, for life.”
10 shares, 1996: $23
10 shares today: $1,130
Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL)
Known for “moonshot” projects such as driverless cars, Alphabet has been a successful shot into the shareholder stratosphere. The day after its Aug. 19, 2004, IPO, the former Google traded for $54.21 a share. Today, Alphabet trades for about $680 (GOOG) and $691 (GOOGL). “Google turned a dominant position in internet search into the world’s leading digital advertising platform,” says Andrew Wetzel, portfolio manager and senior research analyst at F.L. Putnam Investment Management Co. in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
10 shares, 2004: $542
10 shares today: $6,910 (GOOGL), $6,800 (GOOG)
Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST)
What started as a granola muncher (the Hansen Naturals juice and soda line) became a bone cruncher that’s pummeled sports drink competitors. Today MNST trades for $154.50, but in 2001 you could’ve sucked up shares at just 24 cents. So why do few people know about this historic run-up? “Tech stocks have captured the spotlight with most investors and financial publications, while Monster’s remarkable performance has gone largely unrecognized,” says Gerald Jensen, a professor at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business in Omaha.
10 shares, 2001: $2.40
10 shares today: $1,545
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)
The past year or so hasn’t been kind to the Bentonville, Arkansas, super-retailer with its publicized labor troubles and a stock price that’s remained flat at $71.50 per share. But turn the clock back to Oct. 1, 1970, when the chain had roughly three dozen stores, and you could’ve snagged the bargain of a lifetime. “After 11 two-for-one stock splits, you — as an original IPO investor — would have 20,480 shares,” says Keith Baker, professor of mortgage banking at North Lake College in Irving, Texas.
10 shares, 1970: $165
10 shares today: $1,454,100
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold? That’s fiction. Warren Buffett turning a foundering New England textile company into Fort Knox? That’s the much stranger truth. In 1962, when he was the Nobody of Omaha, Buffett started buying shares at about $7 a shot. Today, a single share of Berkshire’s Class A stock sells for $210,400 — almost 50 percent more than the median home price in Buffett’s home town. The return since ’62? You only needed five shares to become a millionaire.
10 shares, 1962: Less than $80
10 shares today: $2,104,000
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The Perfect 10 Shares originally appeared on usnews.com
