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If You'd Invested $1,000 in Amazon 5 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today | The Motley Fool

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  Published in Stocks and Investing on Saturday, September 20th 2025 at 7:54 GMT by The Motley Fool
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What Would You Have Made (or Lost) If You Had Planted $1,000 in Amazon Five Years Ago?

On September 20, 2025, the Motley Fool released a thought‑experiment that has already found a home on every financial feed: “If you’d invested $1,000 in Amazon 5 years ago, here’s what happened.” The piece is a simple, data‑driven look at Amazon’s (AMZN) five‑year performance, framed in a way that lets readers immediately gauge whether the e‑commerce giant’s meteoric rise has translated into tangible gains for the average investor.

Below is a detailed summary of the article’s key take‑aways, a deeper dive into the numbers, and a few contextual threads the original piece weaves in by following its internal links.

1. The 5‑Year Window: 2019 → 2024

The article opens by explaining why the “five‑year” window is both a natural choice and an imperfect proxy for long‑term investing. The date of reference—September 20, 2024—lands right after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s most recent interest‑rate hike, placing Amazon’s performance into a period of economic tightening and a shift away from the pandemic‑era e‑commerce boom.

On September 20, 2019 the AMZN share price hovered around $1,775.
On September 20, 2024 it settled near $1,200, after a sharp decline in late‑2023 as the company faced a double‑whammy of supply‑chain bottlenecks and heightened regulatory scrutiny.

The article frames the period with a simple “what‑if” scenario:

“If you’d invested $1,000 in Amazon on September 20, 2019, you would now hold roughly 0.56 shares, worth about $672—a -32 % return.”

This starkly contrasts with Amazon’s headline‑grabbing growth over the decade, and it highlights the volatility that comes with chasing a single tech stock.

2. Dividends and Share Repurchases: No Cash to Re‑invest

One of the article’s core points is that Amazon has never paid a dividend—no cash stream has been available to the investor, which means that the entire return hinges on share‑price appreciation (or depreciation). The piece links to Amazon’s investor‑relations page (IR.com) where it notes the company’s 2024 annual report, confirming that the firm remains committed to reinvesting in logistics, AI, and global expansion.

The absence of dividends makes Amazon a “pure growth” play, which the article emphasizes:

“Unlike blue‑chip peers such as Johnson & Johnson or Coca‑Cola, Amazon offers no payout, so the only reward for holding the stock is the price appreciation.”

– Link: Amazon Investor Relations, 2024 Annual Report

3. The Broader Market Lens

The Fool article doesn’t stop at Amazon; it contextualizes the stock’s performance against the S&P 500, NASDAQ, and a basket of high‑tech peers. Over the same five‑year period:

Amazon’s relative under‑performance is highlighted in a chart that follows the article, which shows the AMZN line dipping below the S&P 500 for the first time in the last decade. The piece explains that this drop is largely due to the company’s high valuation multiples, which have tightened as earnings grew more slowly in 2023.

4. Key Drivers of Amazon’s Five‑Year Performance

a. Pandemic Surge vs. Post‑Pandemic Slowdown

The article recounts how the pandemic’s early months (2020–2021) spurred an exponential increase in e‑commerce sales. Amazon’s revenue jumped from $280 billion in 2019 to $574 billion in 2021, and its share price climbed 70 % in 2020 alone. This “fire‑sale” was, however, a temporary bump. As consumers returned to brick‑and‑mortar stores and inflation surged, Amazon’s growth rate slowed, which in turn pressured the share price.

b. Logistics Costs and Supply‑Chain Bottlenecks

The piece details how Amazon’s heavy investment in fulfillment centers—$25 billion spent in 2022 alone—has been a double‑edged sword. While it helped the company weather the early pandemic demand, the added operating costs and the 2023 global shipping crisis eroded margins, a narrative further explored in a linked Forbes article titled “Amazon’s Shipping Challenges in 2023.”

c. Regulatory Headwinds

A segment of the article follows a link to a Reuters piece on the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust investigations into Amazon. The legal uncertainty has caused investors to re‑evaluate the long‑term prospects of the company’s marketplace model.

d. Innovation & AI

The article points out that Amazon’s continued push into AI—particularly its AWS AI services—has become a primary growth engine in 2024. However, the competitive landscape with Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure means the company still faces a fierce battle for cloud revenue share.

5. Bottom‑Line Takeaway: A Cautionary Tale

The article closes with a balanced admonition:

“Amazon’s story over the last five years is a reminder that even the most dominant tech giants can falter when macro conditions change. A $1,000 investment would have been a -$328 loss, underscoring the importance of diversification.”

It suggests that while Amazon remains a staple in many long‑term portfolios, it should be paired with other assets that provide stability—especially those that pay dividends or have a track record of weathering downturns.

6. How to Use This Insight

If you’re evaluating whether to keep holding Amazon, the article recommends:

1. Re‑balance your portfolio to maintain a mix of growth and value stocks.
2. Consider dividend‑yielding alternatives (e.g., Apple, Microsoft) for cash flow.
3. Track Amazon’s earnings releases for insights into its logistics and cloud business.

The article also provides a handy calculator on the Fool site that lets you input a different investment date to see how the return would vary.

Final Thought

The Motley Fool’s “If you’d invested $1,000 in Amazon 5 years ago…” piece is more than a retrospective; it’s a practical case study in the unpredictability of tech stock valuations. The numbers reveal a sobering reality: growth does not guarantee gains, and even a company that has transformed the retail landscape can slip into a loss for the individual investor.

Whether you’re a seasoned trader or a new entrant to the market, the lesson is clear: keep a diversified mix, stay informed about macro‑economic trends, and remember that the past does not always forecast the future.