It's been almost a year since Amazon closed the deal to acquire Whole Foods, and the verdict is in for the online retail giant's shareholders. Amazon's shares have more than doubled in the past year, easily outperforming other listed supermarket chains. Since the Amazon-Whole Food deal closed, the S&P 500 has risen 18 percent.
As impressive as that is, original investors in Amazon are doing even better. If you had invested $1,000 during Amazon's IPO in May 1997, your investment would be worth $1,341,000 per share. August 31, according to CNBC calculations.
That's better than the so-called FAANG stocks plus Ebay – which debuted during the same period. Apple's profit, which was the second highest at almost 58,000 percent, is notable, but the company also had a seventeen-year head start and its returns are still less than half of Amazon's.
Amazon isn't just crushing competition from other grocers; it also continues to prevail in retail. Since its initial public offering in May 1997, Amazon has returned more than 134,000 percent, far outpacing other competitors.
It's also worth noting that Amazon started as an online bookstore before growing and diversifying. Barnes & Noble, another bookseller, has seen the value of its shares fall by almost half.
Despite Amazon's remarkable stock performance, any individual stock canover- or under-achieversInPast returns do not predict future performance.
Shallinvesting in the next Amazon? Research your options carefully before entering the stock market. Experiencedinvestors like Warren Buffett recommend starting with index funds. These investments include all the stocks in an index such as the S&P 500 and offer low costs. They also fluctuate with the market and therefore offer less risk than picking individual stocks.
—Additional reporting by George Manessis and Christoper Hayes.
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