Gas Prices: Who's to Blame?

[lookout123]

If you bought 100 shares of GM stock on Jan 1976, today you lost money. GM stock dropped another 6% today. 100 shares of GM stock in 1976 was worth more than the same 100 shares today because GM products are that poor.

January 2, 1976 GM closed at 58.38
June 18, 2008 GM closed at 14.89

If you had invested in 100 sh on that date and held it until now your investment value would have fallen from $5838 down to $2978. That is a loss of $2860. Good job TW, you have pointed out the very obvious fact that a troubled company has seen stock value drop.

Of course, if you gave the rest of the pertinent information the story would look a little different. During that time GM paid dividends on a regular basis. They also had a 2-1 stock split in March of 89. That 100 share investment produced $7872.50 in dividends which must be factored back into current valuation of $2978. So your investment of $5838 is now worth $10,850.50 for a gain of $5012.50.

Those are raw numbers, the return would have been better had dividends reinvested rather than left raw the way I have done.

I don't like GM as a company for their products or their investment potential, but if you're going to make your case using facts and figures it would be helpful if you used all of the pertinent information rather than treating reality as a smorgasbord, just picking and choosing as you move along.

I'll assume that your mistake was accidental rather than an intentional lie. I'm that kind of guy.