If You Bought 1 Share of ConocoPhillips at Its IPO, Here's How Many Shares You Would Own Now

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) has grown into one of the world's largest oil and gas producers over the years. The oil company's public history dates back to 1998, when the Continental Oil Company separated from DuPont. It was the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history at the time, at nearly $4.4 billion.

Here's a look back at how many shares of the oil stock you'd own today if you bought one at its historic IPO nearly three decades ago for roughly $23.

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ConocoPhillips has undergone a lot of changes over the past few decades. A big one came in 2001 when Conoco merged with Phillips Petroleum to create ConocoPhillips, the sixth largest oil company in the world at the time.

As the company grew, so did its share price. That led the oil giant to enact a 2-for-1 stock split in June 2005. In other words, investors who bought one share at the company's IPO would have owned two shares following that split.

That is the only stock split that ConocoPhillips has completed during its history. However, the energy company also completed a stock spinoff in May 2012. It separated its downstream business (e.g., refining, chemicals, and midstream assets) by creating Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), which it spun off to shareholders. They received one share of Phillips 66 for every two shares of ConocoPhillips they owned at the time. As a result, an investor who bought one share of Conoco at its IPO would now own two shares of ConocoPhillips and one share of Phillips 66, which has yet to split its stock.

The value of that initial share would have grown to over $325 -- two shares of ConocoPhillips valued at $105 plus one share of Phillips 66 at $117. On top of that, investors would have collected many dividend payments from the two companies over the years. The payout would currently come to $10.52 per share annually from that initial share.

As these numbers show, even a small investment can grow significantly over the long term.

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Matt DiLallo has positions in ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.