The uptick on Wall Street over the past few months (today's 2.2 percent decline in the Nasdaq notwithstanding) got me thinking about the historical value of tech stocks, so I did a little digging. A share of Apple purchased at $28.75 -- according to Marketwatch the close on its first day of trading on December 12, 1980 -- would be worth $716.32 (not including dividends). That's about a 25-fold increase.
By comparison, Google, which closed at a little more than $100 on its first day of trading in August 2004, has increased about 4.8 times, closing on Monday at $484.75.
Meanwhile, Microsoft, which went public in March of 1986, has watched its value rise about 288-fold. A single $27.75 share purchased on the close of its first day of trading would be worth about $8,490 today, according to this handy calculator.
