How Much Are These Stocks Worth Today??

my dad bought stocks in 1979 thru 1983 (100 shares each yr) of Walmart, Intel and preferred stocks of AT&T. In 1983, he had 550 shares of Watmart, 500 shares in Intel and 500 preferred stocks of AT&T.

he has just held on to them since then and has no idea what they are worth today specially the preferred AT&T shares. i could not help him much specially with preferred AT&T stocks that could have been giving him dividends.

also, he told me the last time he looked at his statements was 1999 and then his AT&T showed him having 750 shares which he thought was a mistake as he only bought 500 shares to start with.

would you know how much my dad's investments may be today as he sure can use the money as he is now retired.

Tell him to contact the compnay for an updated statement. He may have more shares now than before due to stock splits. This is not that uncommon. If they split more than once, he may have many more stocks than he thinks. The current value changes every second that the stock market is open. Your statement will tell you the current value as of the date of the statement.

First, the reason he has more shares is that stock splits, and his accounts may be re-investing the dividends into new shares. (if he is not getting dividend checks then that is probably what has happened.)

Get his last known statements and contact the brokerage company, someone there will be able to help you. My guess is that he is looking a nice little chunk of money. Just keep in mind he will have to pay capital gains taxes. Knowing our democratic run legislature, he wants to cash these in BEFORE they change the tax rate, and they will. It is presently 15% on capital gains, historically the lowest it has ever been.

Good luck

He should contact the company that these were purchased thru or at least get a broker he trust and get them set up on a fund of his own (Roth IRA) this can be used in that manner I believe. Talk to the broker/financial officer regarding this. We should all learn from this lessen. Keep all papers in a file cabinet this the original paperwork and updates. If you keep them at your home, advise your children, spouse of the wear abouts. If they are Left in other place, Attorney, Bank, Investment firm. Make sure there is a list of that as well. even if at multiple banks. When My uncle died he had all his investments in a safe deposit Box. in a neat little file that made it easier to Tally up. He was a fuss budget or so we thought but there was a method to his madness and it paid off. Thanks Uncle Roy.

I am absolutely sure this question can't be serious, but I will still give a serious answer.

These three stocks have done fantastically since purchased by your father.

The data below assumes they were all bought in 1983, I didn't look up the split data from before 1983.

Wal-mart has split several times since 1983. Assuming all 500 shares were purchased in 1983, the split ratio is 64:1. That means that 1 share purchased in 1983 split enough times that each 1983 share is now 64 2007 shares. That means he would have 32,000 shares today, each worth $45.21 making a total of $1,446,720 for the Wal-Mart stock.

Intel did just as well as WMT. The split ratio here is 96:1. 1 1983 share is equal to 96 2007 shares. So the 500 shares in 1983 are now 48,000 shares which are valued near $26.90 each for a total of $1,291,200.

The AT&T is harder to determine. In 1983 AT&T was split up by the federal government. AT&T was split into into several companies and he could have significant shares in Verizon, AT&T (the company called AT&T today is Southwestern Bell that purchased AT&T and then purchased BellSouth), Alcatel (via the acquisition of Lucent -- another AT&T spinoff), Pacific Bell and even Avaya (a LU spin off). I would imagine the shares are worth a considerable amount of $.

Hope this helped.

good luck!