A Humble Start: One Share, One Giant Legacy Back in 1970, if you had picked up a single share of Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), you probably weren’t thinking about generational wealth. Maybe you liked their soap. Maybe you just wanted to dip your toe into the stock market. Either way, that one share would’ve cost you around $80 at the time—and it would’ve been the start of something surprisingly powerful. P&G Stock Split: A Quiet Engine of Growth P&G has split its stock six times since 1970, all on a 2-for-1 basis: May 19, 1970 Feb 22, 1983 Nov 20, 1989 Jun 15, 1992 Sep 22, 1997 Jun 21, 2004 Each split doubled your share count while halving the price per share, keeping the total value the same—at least initially. But over time, as the company grew and the stock appreciated, those extra shares started to matter. A lot. If you had held onto that single share from 1970 through all six splits, you’d now own 64 shares today. What’s That Worth in 2025? As of June 2025, P&G stock trades around $160 per share. Multiply that by 64 shares, and your original investment would now be worth over $10,000—not including dividends, which P&G has paid consistently for over 130 years. That’s a 12,400% return on a single decision to buy one share and do absolutely nothing else. No day trading. No options. Just patience and Tide. Why It Matters P&G’s stock split history isn’t just trivia—it’s a case study in long-term investing and the power of compound growth. While stock splits don’t change a company’s fundamentals, they often reflect management’s confidence and can make shares more accessible to everyday investors. So the next time someone tells you investing is too complicated, just tell them about the person who bought one share of P&G and ended up with a small fortune—and a lifetime supply of shampoo, if they reinvested the dividends wisely.
