If you bought MicroStrategy stock at the IPO, here’s how many shares you’d own now

MicroStrategy (MSTR -1.71%) first went public in June 1998 as a business-to-business software company before the dot-com bubble. MicroStrategy’s stock, along with its business model, has changed dramatically over time.

It became the first publicly traded company to buy Bitcoin (BTC -1.72%) in 2020 and was the second best performer S&P 500 stock since then, including exceeding those ca Nvidia.

Let’s take a look at how much stock MicroStrategy investors would own today as a result of its stock split, if they had owned since its initial public offering.

MicroStrategy Stock Split History

MicroStrategy has had several stock splits since its IPO, including a reverse split. After it went public in 1998, its stock rose alongside other dot-com stocks, prompting management to issue a 2-for-1 stock split. However, when the bubble burst, the company conducted a stock split reverse 1 for 10 in 2002 to maintain the minimum price required for one Nasdaq listing.

Data source: Investing.com.

In 2020, that all changed when current CEO Michael Saylor decided to purchase $250 million worth of Bitcoin, making MicroStrategy the first publicly traded company to do so. The company had excess cash, but faced a slowdown in revenue growth. Since then, the company has acquired 252,220 bitcoins at a total cost of $9.9 billion, primarily using leverage and equity.

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

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