We've all heard that AT&T was once (perhaps still is) the most widely-held stock in the United States. Most of us probably know someone who bought AT&T stock long before the breakup and then never touched it. Every so often you'd hear reports about how good an investment this turned out to be. I was curious to see if I could replicate this myself, following the history of Mother and her babies from 1970 to the present day.
My results suggest a somewhat different picture. Adjusting for inflation, that investment would today be worth today about what you paid for it in 1970. I suspect this is because most such analyses assume reinvestment of dividends, whereas I assume the contrary. (I had to make this assumption in order to finish this project in a single evening.)
You can find my analysis at .
Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every snipped-for-privacy@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those | search for greater freedom. of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)