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In 1935, a secretary bought three shares of her company’s stock for $60 each.
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Grace Groner reinvested her dividends for 75 years and her holding grew to $7.2 million.
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Her employer, Abbott, shared Groner’s story in a recent website post.
In 1935, a secretary paid $180 for three shares of stock in her employer. By the time she died in 2010, her investment had already grown to $1.5 billion $7.2 million.
Abbott, a pharmaceutical company, appealed to the former employee last post on his website.
“As we celebrate 101 years of paying dividends, we remember one of the earliest success stories of Abbott investing, that of Grace Gronerwho worked as a secretary at Abbott for over 40 years,” the post said.
“In 1935, Groner bought three shares of Abbott stock for $60 each. She consistently reinvested her dividend payments and quietly amassed a fortune of $7.2 million. Groner died in 2010 at the age of 100, and only then was her multimillion-dollar estate discovered.
She donated her entire fortune to a foundation she created to support her alma mater, Lake Forest College. She wanted to use the money to finance internships, international studies and service projects for students.
Groner held on to her Abbott shares for over 75 years without selling a single one, despite multiple stock splits, and used her dividends to increase her holdings.
Her simple lifestyle probably allowed her to keep her nest egg intact for so long. She lived in a one-bedroom house, bought her clothes at flea markets and didn’t own a car, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2010.
Its shares would be worth more than $28 million today without dividends, considering Abbott’s stock price has roughly quadrupled since 2010. The drugmaker’s market value has risen to around $200 billion, meaning it now rivals Disney, PepsiCo and Morgan Stanley in size.
Read the original article Business Insider
