Try your own numbers
it would be worth today
$24,306
+$23,306 profit24.3x24.2% a year
The same $1,000 in an S&P 500 index fund: $7,968
Its shares paid about $173.83 in dividends over the last 12 months.
Aftertax on the gain, you’d keep$20,810
US federal long-term rates: 15% for most people, 0% on lower incomes, 20% + 3.8% on high incomes. No state tax included; none inside a Roth IRA.
Growth Over Time
Performance Metrics
Total Invested
$1,000.00
Current Value
$24,305.64
Total Profit
$23,305.64
Multiplier
24.3x
CAGR
24.2%
Max Drawdown
-30.5%
Inflation-Adjusted
$17,118.32
Benchmark Comparison
How does $1,000.00 invested in 2012 compare across different asset classes?
| Asset | Value Today | Return |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | $24,305.64 | 24.3x |
| S&P 500 | $7,967.85 | 7.97x |
| Gold | $2,691.57 | 2.69x |
| Savings (2% APY) | $1,339.11 | 1.34x |
Dividends
Over the last 12 months, the 47.76 shares you'd own now paid about $173.83 in dividends (about $14.49 a month). That's 17% of the $1,000 put in.
Price growth alone turned $1,000 into $18,915; reinvested dividends added the other $5,391, 23% of the gain.
Dividends from Yahoo Finance. Shares today assume every dividend was reinvested.
Back in 2012
- In October 2012, Microsoft began selling Surface, its own tablet PC built for Windows RT, starting at $499 in the U.S. news.microsoft.com
- In 2012, a gallon of gas averaged $3.62, a movie ticket averaged $7.96 and the new iPhone 5 started at $199 with a two-year contract. eia.govtechcrunch.comdeadline.com
- During 2012 itself, Microsoft rose 6.1%, #60 of the 74 investments we track. The best was Bitcoin (+152%); the worst was AMD (−54%). Full 2012 results →
$1,000 in Microsoft, year by year
Of the 74 investments we track that were available at the start of 2012, Microsoft ranks #15 by growth to today — just behind Super Micro Computer and ahead of Google. See the full 2012 ranking →
Microsoft started 2012 17% below its start-of-2008 high, after falling 1.8% in 2011. It has been worth more than the $1,000 put in at every January since, and still is today. Today's $24,306 is more than it was worth at any January since. It rose in 13 of the 14 full years since. It moved ahead of the same $1,000 in the S&P 500 at the start of 2015 and has stayed ahead since. Month by month, the deepest fall ran from Dec 2021 ($15,494) to Oct 2022 ($10,764), a drop of 31%.
| When | Worth | Change | S&P 500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of 2012 | $1,000 | — | $1,000 |
| Start of 2013 | $1,061 | +6.1% | $1,160 |
| Start of 2014 | $1,471 | +39% | $1,536 |
| Start of 2015 | $1,901 | +29% | $1,746 |
| Start of 2016 | $2,289 | +20% | $1,770 |
| Start of 2017 | $2,685 | +17% | $1,982 |
| Start of 2018 | $3,771 | +40% | $2,414 |
| Start of 2019 | $4,513 | +20% | $2,309 |
| Start of 2020 | $7,283 | +61% | $3,036 |
| Start of 2021 | $9,975 | +37% | $3,594 |
| Start of 2022 | $15,468 | +55% | $4,626 |
| Start of 2023 | $11,174 | −28% | $3,788 |
| Start of 2024 | $17,451 | +56% | $4,784 |
| Start of 2025 | $19,843 | +14% | $5,981 |
| Start of 2026 | $22,443 | +13% | $7,050 |
| Today | $24,306 | +8.3% | $7,968 |
Values at the start of each year (first trading day for stocks). The S&P 500 column includes reinvested dividends, like the stock values.
Historical Context
At the start of 2012, Microsoft was priced at $20.94 (adjusted for later splits and dividends). $1,000 would have bought about 47.76 shares. Microsoft makes Windows and Office and runs Azure, one of the largest cloud platforms.
Measured from one January to the next, Microsoft's best year since then was 2019 (+61%) and its worst was 2022 (−28%). Holding on wasn't easy: between the start of 2022 and the start of 2023, the position fell 28% from its high.
Frequently Asked Questions
A $1,000 investment in Microsoft at the start of 2012 would be worth approximately $24,305.64 today — a 24.3x return ($23,305.64 profit) over 14.7 years.
Methodology & Sources
Price data: Historical prices are the closing price on the first trading day of each year, adjusted for splits and dividends (so returns assume dividends were reinvested), from Yahoo Finance and MacroTrends. Current prices come from Yahoo Finance and refresh hourly; if that source is unavailable, the last saved price is used.
Calculation: Assumes a single purchase at the start of 2012 (or the first trading day, for companies that listed that year), held until today. No transaction fees, taxes, or slippage are included.
Benchmarks: The S&P 500 comparison uses the S&P 500 Total Return index (dividends reinvested, like an index fund) at the start of2012 and today. Gold uses the price per troy ounce. Savings account assumes a 2% APY compounded annually.
Inflation adjustment: Uses U.S. CPI-U annual averages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2026 CPI value is estimated.
Educational purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Not financial advice.
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See how every stock and crypto ranked since 2012 →
$1,000 in Microsoft, by year
$1,000 in Microsoft:1 year ago5 years ago10 years ago
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