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Netflix.com Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings sits in a cart full of ready-to-be-shipped DVDs January 29, 2002 in San Jose, CA.
- Wednesday was the 16th anniversary of Netflix's initial public offering.
- A $1,000 investment made at the stock's first-day closing price would be worth nearly $300,000 today.
- Watch Netflix trade in real time here.
Wednesday was the 16th anniversary of Netflix's initial public offering, and an investors buying in then would have made a very impressive return over the years.
After initially offering its stock at $15 per share on May 23, 2002, Netflix closed its first day of trading at $16.75, or $1.20 per present-day share after adjusting for stock splits, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
As of 12:25 PM ET on Thursday, Netflix was trading around an all-time high of $350.41 per share, with a market capitalization surpassing that of entertainment mega-giant Disney.
The chart below shows the value of a $1,000 investment in Netflix stock made at the first day's split-adjusted closing price of $1.20 per share over the following 16 years. As of Thursday, that investment would be worth around $293,000, which is a pretty good return:
