If you'd put $1,000 into Microsoft stock 20 years ago, here's what you'd have today

A W. P. Carey finance expert found that Microsoft is one of the most successful stocks of the past three decades.

In this story published Aug. 6 2025, in Kiplinger:

Between January 1990 and December 2020, shares in Microsoft, which joined the Dow in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, generated a total return of 57,730%. The S&P 500's total return came to a mere 1,950% over the same span.

Along the way, Microsoft generated $1.91 trillion in wealth for shareholders, good for an annualized dollar-weighted return of 19.2%, according to Hendrik Bessembinder, professor of finance at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Only Apple (AAPL) generated more wealth for shareholders over those three decades, making Microsoft one of the best stocks of the past 30 years, per Bessembinder's findings, which account for cash flows in and out of the business and other adjustments.