The Beginner’s Guide to Investing

If you invested $1,000 in Best Buy in 2009, here's how much money you'd have now

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Investing in these stocks would have made you rich by now—here are other ways to invest your money
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Investing in these stocks would have made you rich by now—here are other ways to invest your money

Retail chain Best Buy reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings Thursday, with shares ticking up more than 2%. Its share price just ahead of market close was hovering around $65.

If you invested in the company 10 years ago, you would have made a profit. A $1,000 investment made on May 23, 2009, would be worth more than $2,400 as of midday May 23, 2019, for a total return of just over 145%, according to CNBC calculations.

Over the same period, the S&P 500 has returned about 218%.

Best Buy earned $1.02 per share, excluding one-time items, during the quarter — about 16 cents higher than analysts' estimates, according to financial markets data provider Refinitiv. The retailer's overall same-store sales rose 1.1%, compared with Wall Street estimates of 0.9%. And domestic comparable online sales rose 14.5% to $1.31 billion, or about 15.4% of this quarter's total revenue.

CNBC: Best Buy stock as of May 23, 2019.

While Best Buy's stock has mostly performed well over the years, any individual stock can over- or underperform, and past returns do not predict future results.

Although the company reported better-than-expected earnings per share, the overall revenue fell short. Total revenue rose slightly to $9.14 billion, but came in below analysts' estimates, and some industry experts fear that the possibility of additional tariffs could hurt sales. The White House recently released a list of roughly $300 billion in Chinese goods that President Donald Trump could hit with tariffs as high as 25%.

Analysts also worry that an executive reshuffle, effective June 11, could cause momentum to slow. The changes will make Corie Barry, Best Buy's acting chief financial officer and strategic transformation officer, the company's new chief executive officer — the first woman in that role. Hubert Joly, the retailer's current board chairman and chief executive officer, will become executive chairman of the board.

The changes are part of Best Buy's "ongoing succession planning process," which is meant to "provide leadership continuity," the company said. Despite concerns, the process is "genuinely well thought out," according to Barry.

Best Buy's increasing sales are due, in part, to the retailer's online offerings, such as subscription-based tech support. It has also been investing in its delivery service and its "click and connect" service, which helps shoppers purchase products online and pick them up in store.

The company is forecasting second-quarter sales and profit above what Wall Street had projected.

If you're looking to get into investing, seasoned investors such as Warren Buffett suggest you start with index funds, which hold every stock in an index, meaning they're automatically diversified and tend to be low cost. Plus, because they fluctuate with the market, they're typically less risky than picking individual stocks.

Here's a snapshot of how the markets look now.

Don't miss: If you invested $1,000 in Netflix in 2007, here's how much you'd have now

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Here's how young people should invest their first $10,000
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Here's how young people should invest their first $10,000