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A secretary bought three shares of stock in her company for $60 each in 1935.
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Grace Groner reinvested her dividends for 75 years and her stake grew to $7.2 million.
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His employer, Abbott, shared Groner’s story in a recent article on its website.
A secretary paid $180 in 1935 for three shares of stock from her employer. By the time of his death in 2010, his investment had multiplied to reach $7.2 million.
Abbott, a pharmaceutical company, honored the former employee in a recent post on its website.
“As we celebrate 101 years of paying dividends, we remember one of Abbott’s earliest investment success stories, that of Grace Gronerwho worked as a secretary at Abbott for over 40 years,” the message read.
“In 1935, Groner purchased three shares of Abbott stock for $60 each. She constantly reinvested her dividend payments and quietly amassed a fortune of $7.2 million. Groner died in 2010, at the age of 100 years, and only then was his multi-million dollar estate discovered.
She donated her entire fortune to a foundation she created to support her alma mater, Lake Forest College. She set aside this money to fund internships, international studies and service projects for students.
Groner held on to his Abbott shares for more than 75 years without selling a single one, despite several stock splits, and used his dividends to bolster his stake.
She was probably able to leave her nest egg intact for so long because of her simple lifestyle. She lived in a one-bedroom house, bought her clothes at rummage sales and did not own a car, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2010.
Its shares would be worth more than $28 million today, excluding dividends, given that Abbott’s stock price has roughly quadrupled since 2010. The drugmaker’s market value has reached about $200 billion , meaning it now rivals Disney, PepsiCo and Morgan Stanley in size.
Read the original article on Business Insider
