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

Coca cola (K.O 0.77%) it went public in 1919 and has split shares several times since then. So let’s take a look at the history and what it would mean for an original Coca-Cola shareholder.

Before we can determine how many shares you would own if you bought a share in Coca-Cola’s initial public offering (IPO), we need to take a look at the history of stock splits. There have been a total of 11 stock splits over the company’s 105-year publicly traded history.

Data source: Coca-Cola.

As you can see, this split history would have resulted in a massive number of actions over time. One share of Coca-Cola bought at the time of the 1919 IPO would have multiplied to 9,216 shares today.

When Coca-Cola went public in 1919, its stock was initially priced at $40. At the time of this writing, a share of Coca-Cola trades for about $69. But you would have 9,216 of them. That initial $40 investment would be worth $635,904 today. Not only that, but you’d be bringing in nearly $17,900 in dividends every year.

An excellent example of a long-term combination

Of course, it’s pretty certain that no one reading this actually bought a share of Coca-Cola in 1919 (although some people may have inherited shares that were bought then). But this is a great example of the long-term power of compounding returns. Imagine being able to spend $40 today that will eventually turn into a massive nest egg and an $18,000 annual income stream for your children or grandchildren.