Games Workshop Group (LSE: GAW) is one of the growth stock winners on the FTSE in 2023. And looking at the share price the other day, I had one of those ‘If I’d invested…’ moments.
I remember Games Workshop from the 90s when I was buying growth stocks. After its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 1994, it did as so many do, and dropped. But it picked up.
I saw the share price soar over the next few years, and then crash again. It quickly eight-bagged, but was back where it started after just six years.
Boom and bust
That can happen with growth stocks though, and the Games Workshop share price soon started climbing again.
But I then watched another boom and bust. This time it peaked a bit higher, but by summer 2008, it was back around the IPO price. Again. In a bit less than 14 years, it had gone nowhere. And I was happy I didn’t buy.
But here’s the thing. The highest price the stock reached in those early days was around 890p. To buy Games Workshop shares at the time of writing, we’d have to shell out 11,370p.
Looking at the all-time share price chart, those big early ups and downs now seem like no more than tiny ripples.
Multi-bagger
Even if I’d bought at the worst possible time in 2004, right at the peak, I’d still have multiplied my cash 12-fold by today. And the stock is now worth 92 times its IPO price.
That means I could be sitting on a cool million pounds today, if I’d plonked down a bit short of £11,000 at IPO time.
Now, I didn’t have that cash at the time, and I wouldn’t have put that much into one stock. My typical buy amount was £1,000 back then.
But even that much in Games Workshop could have netted me around £92,000 to put towards my old age.
Lessons to learn
I guess that’s partly why I moved on from growth stock investing. I was no good at it, and kept missing the big ones.
There’s a lesson there. I’ve always bought shares for the long term. But if we buy into a new growth stock, we just can’t help following the price movements day to day, can we? I know I can’t.
And just a year or two can sure feel like a long time when we go for growth and buy volatile shares.
Another chance?
What does it all mean about Games Workshop shares today? Should we buy now?
Well, I won’t. Looking at the share price now, I feel the same as I did at those early peaks. It looks real risky, and the thought of buying makes me twitch.
But I could be as wrong now as I was then. And in 10 years time I could be looking back on another missed chance.
Oh well, I guess I have to find my million some other way…
This post was originally published on Motley Fool
