Which U.S. Stocks Generated the Highest Long-Term Returns?

15 Pages Posted: 22 Jul 2024

Date Written: July 16, 2024

Abstract

This report describes compound return outcomes for the 29,078 publicly-listed common stocks contained in the CRSP database from December 1925 to December 2023. The majority (51.6%) of these stocks had negative cumulative returns. However, the investment performance of some stocks was remarkable. Seventeen stocks delivered cumulative returns greater than five million percent (or $50,000 per dollar initially invested), with the highest cumulative return of 265 million percent (or $2.65 million per dollar initially invested) accruing to long-term investors in Altria Group. Annualized compound returns to these top performers relatively were modest, averaging 13.47% across the top seventeen stocks, thereby affirming the importance of "time in the market." The highest annualized compound return for any stock with at least 20 years of return data was 33.38%, earned by Nvidia shareholders.

JEL Classification: G10, G11, G20

Suggested Citation

Bessembinder, Hendrik (Hank), Which U.S. Stocks Generated the Highest Long-Term Returns? (July 16, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4897069 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4897069

Hendrik (Hank) Bessembinder (Contact Author)

W.P. Carey School of Business ( email )

W. P. Carey School of Business
PO Box 873906
Tempe, AZ 85287-3906
United States

HOME PAGE: http://isearch.asu.edu/profile/2717225

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