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

Semiconductor designer Advanced microdevices (AMD -0.16%) has become a power player in the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company is also fighting against the segment leader Nvidia in the high-performance graphics processing units (GPU) market for gamers and professional graphic designers. AMD is even taking market share from the PC processor Intel in several important niches.

As a result, AMD stock has gained 3,410% over the past decade. By comparison, the S&P 500 the market index gained 231% over the same period, while Intel investors lost 29%. Those numbers are total returns, including a boost from reinvested dividends along the way — which AMD has never offered.

AMD Stock Split History

AMD’s stock price rose to $141 per share, raising speculation about a potential stock split. As it turns out, AMD has done several splits in the past, but none of them are recent:

Data source: AMD.

It’s a long string of modest splits, adding up to a 27-to-1 multiplier over 22 years. If you bought AMD stock when it went public on September 27, 1972, you would have 27 stubs today. The initial bill for that purchase would be approximately $11.37, based on an adjusted price of $0.421 per share. Today, those 27 AMD shares are worth a total of $3,807.

AMD data by YCharts.

AMD did not issue a stock split because the Athlon processor was brand new. Most of the splits were executed when the company acted as a second source of microchips in the era of PacMan, transistor radios and VHS players.