Shareholders who invested $1,000 in Coke stock when Mr. Goizueta took over would have $65,000 of stock today, assuming reinvestment of dividends.
Taking the year through Nov. 30, the latest period for which comparable statistics are available, the stock funds rose 19.6 percent against a 17 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, assuming reinvestment, according to Lipper Analytical Services Inc., which tracks mutual funds.
According to Ibbotson Associates, a Chicago research firm, $1 invested in the S.&P. 500 in 1926 would have grown to $1,828 through 1998, assuming automatic reinvestment of dividends and interest.
An investment in A.T.&T. has almost doubled, assuming annual reinvestment of dividends, since the new shares first began trading, on a when-issued basis, on Nov. 21, 1983.
They may recall that G.M. was the only one of the Big Three auto makers to pay a dividend each year of the 1980's, and that - assuming annual reinvestment of dividends - G.M. stock has outperformed the market during the Smith era, which began at the end of 1980.
And from 1954 through 1956, the S.& P. 500 had a total return of 88 percent, assuming annual reinvestment of dividends.
Such results, together with the growth of the tax business, have meant that an investor who bought 100 shares of Block when it went public at $4 a share in 1962 would have 41,206 shares today, worth around $1.2 million, assuming reinvestment of dividends.
Some C.D. yields assume reinvestment after maturity.
Mutual funds report total returns assuming reinvestment of dividend and capital gain distributions.
From April 22, 1981, the day Mr. Welch took command at G.E., through yesterday, an investment in General Electric common stock rose 6,220 percent - or 23.5 percent a year - assuming reinvestment of all dividends and ignoring taxes and transaction costs.