100Baggers

THE 100-BAGGERS OF THE LAST 50 YEARS 65
Today’s announcement will enhance the integration of broadband pipes
and content to expand the services offered to consumers,” said Microsoft
founder Bill Gates in a press release then.
The acquisitions continued. Two big ones were the 2001 acquisition
of AT&T’s cable system and in 2011 the acquisition of NBCUniversal.
Comcast’s network also became an important highway for the Internet,
and that propelled growth even further. You can see how Comcast’s
sales really began to build as we got into the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Sales at Comcast
12,000
10,000
Millions of dollars ($)
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
1/1/81
1/1/82
1/1/83
1/1/84
1/1/85
1/1/86
1/1/87
1/1/88
1/1/89
1/1/90
1/1/91
1/1/92
1/1/93
1/1/94
1/1/95
1/1/96
1/1/97
1/1/98
1/1/99
1/1/00
0
1/1/01
What’s most interesting is this was still early in the story. Comcast
would eventually grow sales more than six times from 2001, as it continued
to expand and acquire companies.
“Big acquisitions during this time include: AT&T Broadband, Adelphia
(50–50 with TIME Warner Cable) and a 51 percent stake of NBCUniversal,”
Alejandro writes.
An investor would have had to sit through a nasty fall as the 2000 stock
market bubble burst. Comcast shares would give up about half their value from
the peak to the trough in 2002. But then it was off to the races once again.
An investor who held on through 2014 would’ve had a 188-bagger.
This is a short case study, but it serves to highlight again the power of
sales growth and the ability to see something beyond the reported earnings.