Retail investors who choose to invest in technology stocks generally only have one way to make money on their investments. It’s pretty basic: The stock needs to increase in value over time so that it not only outpaces inflation but broad stock indexes such as the Nasdaq or S&P 500. For example, a growth stock like Google Alphabet (GOOG) has returned nearly +5,000% since it went public nearly 20 years ago. In comparison, the S&P 500 has gained about +300% and the Nasdaq more than +580% during the same time period.
Meanwhile, an investment in venerable tech company IBM (IBM) would have yielded a +65% increase over the last couple of decades.
But gangbuster stock returns are not why investors acquire shares of IBM stock. The 112-year-old company has been paying investors a cash dividend for more than 110 years