As a big fan of buy and hold investing, I've been looking at how investments in many popular shares have fared if you'd bought in at their IPOs.
I recently looked at payments company Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and biotech giant CSL Limited (ASX: CSL). If you're interested in seeing how they've fared, you can read here and here.
Today I thought I would look at another market darling, electronic design software company Altium Limited (ASX: ALU).
While Altium might seem like it has appeared out of nowhere over the last few years, its IPO was actually a lot further back than you would imagine.
The Altium IPO.
On August 4 1999, Altium, then known as Protel Systems, completed its IPO and its shares were listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The company raised $30 million at $2.00 per share, with the funds being used to assist in financing its growth strategies.
This means that if you invested $10,000 in Altium at its IPO, you would have ended up with 5,000 shares.
It hasn't been a smooth ride for the company and its shareholders since the IPO to say the least. In fact, no doubt many early investors gave up on the company and sold off their shares after a series of missteps eventually led to its shares falling as low as 9 cents in 2011.
But those investors that were patient have certainly been rewarded. Thanks to the emergence of the Internet of Things (connected devices) and its award-winning printed circuit board design software, Altium's shares have not looked back since hitting that low.
Prior to the coronavirus crash, the company's shares were trading at an all-time high of $42.76. Whereas, today they are changing hands for $35.00. This means that those 5,000 shares you picked up at the IPO are now worth a cool $175,000.
But given its strong long term growth potential, I wouldn't be selling these shares any time soon. As I mentioned earlier here, I think Altium's shares could easily double in value again over the next decade.
