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As difficult as this might be to digest, technology titan Apple<\/strong> (NASDAQ: AAPL)<\/span> is now 50 years old. It reached the milestone on April 1, 2026.<\/p>\n And what a run it’s been! From its uncertain beginnings in Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage to near-bankruptcy in 1997 to the $3.8 trillion behemoth it is today, this company is the quintessential corporate rags-to-riches story. It’s also arguably changed the world along the way, introducing its first iPhone back in 2007, setting off a mobile technology<\/a> arms race that would make smartphones the centerpieces of most people’s lives.<\/p>\n Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire?<\/strong>\u00a0Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need.\u00a0Continue \u00bb<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n And this begs the question: Just how well rewarded would Apple’s earliest investors be if they’d patiently stuck with the stock since Apple’s initial public offering back in December 1980?<\/p>\n Here’s the answer.<\/p>\n Apple’s public offering price was $22 per share, for the record, although this number is meaningless now.<\/p>\n See, the company’s split its stock five times in the meantime, with two of those splits resulting in far more shares than the typical 2-for-1 split. All told, owning just one share then would leave you with 224 shares of Apple today, dialing back its effective IPO price of $22 to only $0.10. Compared to the ticker’s current price of $254.65, that translates into a 45-year gain of a little over 254,650%.<\/p>\n That’s a big number. It’s so big, in fact, that investors might struggle to wrap their minds around it. A more tangible numerical example might make it make more sense.<\/p>\n So to this end, a very plausible $2,000 investment made in this plucky company’s 1980 public offering would be worth a little more than $5.18 million today.<\/p>\n Wow!<\/p>\n It’s unlikely anyone — even including long-tenured employees and insiders — would have held on to any of their stakes received or bought when the company went public this whole time.<\/p>\n Still, clearly at least some people have done incredibly well for themselves by being patient with this stock.<\/p>\n Just don’t lose perspective on the matter. For every Apple, there’s a Groupon<\/strong>, MySpace, Radio Shack, and a Juicero that the world at one point was just as certain to be destined for Apple-like greatness. That’s why you own more than one stock. You want to give yourself more chances of holding one of the great ones.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n That being said, don’t feel like you have to get in on the ground floor to reap a massive reward. The vast majority of Apple’s net gains have materialized just since 2007<\/a>, when the company solidified a then-nascent smartphone industry it would end up leading. Given that Amazon<\/strong> and streaming giant Netflix<\/strong> did the same and similarly rewarded their shareholders as a result, that seems to be the real formula for Apple-like returns.<\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Apple, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor<\/em> analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a><\/strong> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Apple wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix<\/strong> made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you\u2019d have $532,066<\/strong>!* Or when Nvidia<\/strong> made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,087,496<\/strong>!*<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s<\/em> total average return is 926% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor<\/em>, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of April 4, 2026. <\/em><\/p>\n James Brumley<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, and Netflix and is short shares of Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n