Sounds like a sales pitch from a shadowy investment firm.  It’s not. This is just information.

There are in fact, 13 companies out there that have risen by more than 100,000% since they went public.   

This also means there are some lucky investors who turned $1,000 into $1 million, or $10,000 into $10 million.  

You might think you missed the boat with these companies, and you may have, but you are also probably thinking that if 13 companies have done this, there are 13 more who eventually will.  Remember, 25 years ago no one ever heard of Amazon.

All of this is detailed in a recent book I co-wrote with legendary growth investor Louis Navellier called The Sacred Truths of Investing. 

The list of companies in the 100,000% Club is below.  As you will note, there is a preponderance of tech companies, but there are sleepers too like Sherwin-Williams and aircraft components maker HEICO.  

Regrettably, there is no common theme that could help you find the next member of the 100,000% Club.  Each had their own path.  

• McDonald’s got there by making continuous improvements.  These improvements added just basis points to margins, but really added up over 60 years.  

• HEICO got there by making some 90 acquisitions.  Of course, M&A is something anyone can do, but few can do it well.  Across the 20 years of financial statements we looked at, HEICO never had a write-down, a remarkable track record.  

• Adobe got there for a lot of reasons, but pivotal, based on looking at decades of income statements was the decision in 2013 to change to a subscription model which turbo-charged the top line.  

• United Healthcare and Sherwin Williams also got there through M&A, but in the book, we warn against the perils of investing in companies that are buying revenues (and hopefully earnings):  “Mergers and acquisitions are the demise of more companies than their salvation by a factor of 100.”  

One factor that could make earning a return of 100,000% more realistic are dividends.  The returns shown below are capital gains returns only.  Factoring dividends and reinvesting them over the long haul could materially change the calculus.  For instance, the first year Home Depot offered a dividend, 1992, it paid out $0.04.  Today? It’s $9.00 a share, for a total increase of more than 22,000% and average annual growth of more than 18%.  

The other ingredient needed to earn a return of 100,000% is time.  The quickest ride to the 100,000% Club was offered by Nvidia, which did it in 25 years.  McDonald’s took the longest at 60 years.