Apple – on Thursday – lost its $1 trillion valuation for a short time after its shares dropped 7% following a weak outlook. Despite the drop and weak outlook, Apple’s stock is the top choice of most investors and analysts. And, if past returns are anything to go by, investors can still expect handsome returns from this 40-year-old company.

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Apple’s stock – then and now

Talking of the past performance, those who invested in Apple in its early days would have made a fortune by now provided they were not tempted to sell their stock somewhere in between. According to the calculations by CNBC, $1000 invested in Apple’s IPO in December 1980, would be worth over $500,000 now. The calculations include price appreciation and dividends.

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, with Wayne leaving the company just weeks later. Apple’s first customer was The Byte Shop, a Bay Area computer store, which ordered 50 Apple I computers. Jobs took a $15,000 loan to complete the contract. In June of the next year, Apple released the Apple II.

Apple went public in December 1980 offering 4.6 million shares at $22 each. The IPO was well received, and the stock closed 30% higher on the opening day. Currently, Apple’s stock is trading around $210.

Another interesting fact about the IPO was it created over 300 millionaires in a single day. According to EDN, the IPO created “more millionaires than any company in history had produced.” Many of those millionaires were Apple employees, including Jobs who made more than $200 million.

A trillion dollar company now

Fast forward to 2018, Apple in August became the first public U.S. company to hit a $1 trillion market cap. Apple’s journey, however, hasn’t been smooth. It was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1997, but somehow, Jobs managed to steer the company from those days along with revolutionizing the technology market with products like the iPod and iPhone.