Episode Details

Five Year Case Studies

Apple Stock (AAPL)

Apple Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players worldwide. The company also sells related software, services, accessories, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. It offers iPhone, a line of smartphones that comprise a phone, music player, and Internet device; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; Mac, a line of desktop and portable personal computers; and iPod, a line of portable digital music and media players, such as iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle. The company also provides iTunes app and the iTunes Store; Mac App Store that allows customers to discover, download, and install Mac applications; iCloud, a cloud service; Apple Pay for making mobile payments; Apple TV, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications; iOS and OS X operating systems software; iLife, a consumer-oriented digital lifestyle software application suite; iWork, an integrated productivity suite designed to help users create, present, and publish documents, presentations, and spreadsheets; and other application software, including Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro X, and its FileMaker Pro database software. In addition, it offers various Apple-branded and third-party Mac-compatible and iOS-compatible accessories, including headphones, cases, displays, storage devices, and various other connectivity and computing products and supplies. The company sells and delivers digital content and applications through the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, and Mac App Store; and sells its products through its retail stores, online stores, and direct sales force, as well as through third-party cellular network carriers, wholesalers, retailers, and value-added resellers. It serves consumers, and small and mid-sized businesses, as well as education, enterprise, and government customers. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in in Cupertino, California.

$1,000 invested five years ago = over $3,000 today

$10,000 invested five years ago = over $30,000

$100,000 invested five years ago = over $300,000

Home Depot (HD)

The Home Depot, Inc. operates as a home improvement retailer. The Home Depot stores sell various building materials, home improvement products, and lawn and garden products as well as provide installation, home maintenance, and professional service programs to do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me, and professional customers. The company offers installation programs that include flooring, cabinets, countertops, water heaters, and sheds, as well as act as a contractor to provide installation services to its do-it-for-me customers through third-party installers.

It primarily serves professional remodelers, general contractors, repairmen, small business owners, and tradesmen. The company also sells its products through online. As of March 13, 2014, it operated 2,263 retail stores in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, and Mexico. The Home Depot, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

$1,000 invested five years ago = over $3,200 today

$10,000 invested five years ago = over $32,000

$100,000 invested five years ago = over $320,000

Visa

Visa Inc., a payments technology company, operates as a retail electronic payments network worldwide.