Welcome to Episode #488 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast.
Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds, and ETFs and how it impacts your life.
This week, Tracey went solo to look at the hottest IPOs of the last two decades: Tesla, Facebook and Alibaba.
Did You Buy the Tesla, Facebook and Alibaba IPOs?
Tesla went first, by going IPO in 2010. Elon Musk was little known at that time but investors were excited about the possibility of an electric car.
Facebook was the next big IPO that decade going IPO in 2012. Many parents wanted to buy shares to fund their children’s college education. Most people used Facebook and were eager to own a share of the company.
The final “big” IPO was Alibaba which went public in 2014. At the time, Alibaba was the largest IPO in history. Investors were eager for a way to cash in on China’s billion-consumer juggernaut.
Did investors make out in any of these popular IPOs if they bought it on the day of the IPO and held it until June 2026?
3 Juggernaut IPOs: Did Investors Get Rich or Not?
1. Tesla, Inc. (TSLA)
Tesla went public on June 29, 2010, at a price of $17 a share. However, most investors could not get the IPO price. It closed up 40% at $23.89.
If an investor had bought $10,000 worth of Tesla stock on the day of the IPO at $23.89, it would be worth about $2.4 million in June 2026. Tesla has split its shares twice since the IPO, in 2020 and 2022.
Are investors in SpaceX hoping that the second Elon Musk company has the luck of Tesla all over again?
2. Meta Platforms, Inc. (META)
Meta Platforms started its life as a public company as Facebook Inc. Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, at the price of $38 a share.
Meta Platforms was a highly anticipated IPO due to the interest of retail investors. In interviews in the financial press, investors said they were buying it to pay for their children’s college education.
$10,000 invested in Meta Platforms on the day of the IPO is currently worth about $154,000. Meta Platforms has never split its shares but it is now paying a dividend, yielding 0.4%.
Did investors hold onto Meta Platforms shares over the last fourteen years and did they pay for college with it?
3. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA)
Alibaba was a highly anticipated IPO when it went public on Sep 18, 2014, at the price of $68 a share. Zacks held a live streaming event on the day it launched as it was the largest IPO in history, at that time.
Alibaba raised $25 billion on its IPO. Compare that with SpaceX, which is intending to raise $75 billion.
Shares of Alibaba soared on the first day of trading but have struggled in the twelve years since. $10,000 invested in the IPO in 2014 would be about $17,509 today.
Did you get rich if you bought and held Alibaba for the last twelve years? The answer would be “no.”
What Else Should You Know About Buying a Stock on the IPO?
Tune into this week’s podcast to find out.
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Tesla, Inc. (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).