What does it mean when a stock is at a 20 year low?

Question

When they say a stock is at a 20 year low, does that mean if I had invested $1000 in it 20 years ago I'd only have $1000 today?

Answer 1

No, it may have paid dividends during that time.  It means the stock price is the lowest it has been in 20 years.  So if the price was $30/share in 1988, it is back down to that price (adjusted for splits).



If the company is strong and not in danger of going bankrupt, this could be a good time to start buying such a stock.  It is like getting it on sale.  Buy low, sell high.

Answer 2

on the additional details;

Yes. If you invested $1000 twenty years ago in a stock or cash or anything and it had no splits, dividends or interest, you would have $1000 today, however the time value of money has depreciated significantly. The buy power of that $1000.00 with no growth in 20 years is a loss of about $867 or about 87%. Thus that $1000 would buy only $133.00 worth of stuff today.

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cg...

(reverse calculation of growth).

Answer 3

No. What it means is, the price for one share hasn't been lower than this at any point over the last 20 years.

If, for instance, the share price right now is $10.00; if that's a 20-year low, the price has never been lower than $10.00 since 1988. In reality it may well mean that if you'd invested $1,000 twenty years ago, today you would have exactly $1,000.

Answer 4

No.  If you look at the exchange listing, they have a 52weeks high and low price.   20 year low mean the price of the stock is at it lowest compare to the last twenty years.  It has nothing to do with your initial investment amount.

Answer 5

It means it is the lowest it's been in the last 20 years.