Apple (AAPL -2.40%) has been a public company for more than 44 years. It's had a lot of twists and turns since, including the firing and rehiring of founder Steve Jobs. The company's struggles in the 1990s even led to some investors doubting the company's survival.

Those days are long gone, though. Apple has gone on to produce popular products like the iPhone, and patient stockholders have been handsomely rewarded over the years. However, some can find it challenging to understand the stock price history and number of shares owned following stock splits, particularly if there's been more than one.

Here's how many shares you would own if you'd bought and held the shares for all of these years.

Image source: Getty Images.

Running the numbers

Apple's board of directors has declared five stock splits since its 1980 initial public offering (IPO). The stock had several 2-for-1 splits between 1987 and 2005 (June 1987, June 2000, and February 2005). Subsequently, there were 7-for-1 and 4-for-1 splits in 2014 and 2020, respectively.

Every time Apple stock split, the number of shares that you owned went up (e.g., a 2-for-1 split doubled your share count). Doing some multiplication, your one share became 224 shares. However, the share prices went down in proportion (e.g., divided by two for a 2-for-1 stock split).

Hence, while Apple sold shares to the public at $22 a share, the split-adjusted price is about $0.10. With the stock at $236 as of Jan. 31, you'd have seen tremendous price appreciation.

Can Apple continue rewarding shareholders? The shares trade at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 34 compared to 30 for the S&P 500 index. The valuation indicates the market expects fast growth, but people will likely want to see better than the 4% revenue growth posted in its fiscal 2025 first quarter that ended on Dec. 28, 2024.