What if you bought LVMH in 2000?
World · France. The hindsight answer, year by year, against the only benchmark that matters.
Could you have picked it? Play6.9× · S&P 500 same money: $4,626
$1,000 in LVMH at the start of 2000 would be worth about $6,875 today — 6.9 times your money, and ahead of the S&P 500 over the same stretch.
The story
LVMH is the luxury conglomerate Bernard Arnault assembled after taking control in 1989: Louis Vuitton, Dior, Moët, Hennessy, Sephora, Bulgari and dozens more. Its shares halved after the 2000 bubble and went sideways through the 2008 financial crisis, as luxury was considered a cyclical, discretionary business. Arnault kept buying, including a creeping stake in rival Hermès that triggered a long legal fight in the early 2010s.
The great rally came from Chinese consumers, who became the industry's most important buyers, and from LVMH's ability to raise prices year after year without losing customers. In 2019 it agreed to buy Tiffany, tried to back out during the pandemic, and closed the deal in 2021 at a renegotiated price. By 2023 LVMH was briefly the most valuable company in Europe and Arnault the richest person in the world. A slowdown in Chinese spending and weaker luxury demand in 2024 and 2025 cooled the shares considerably, but from 2003 the position still multiplied in value more than tenfold.
The lesson: Brands that can raise prices without losing customers possess a moat that compounds over decades, even if the business still swings with the global economy.
$1,000 invested at the start of each year
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $80.00 | $6,875 | $4,626 | 6.9× |
| 2003 | $40.00 | $13,750 | $7,727 | 13.8× |
| 2005 | $55.00 | $10,000 | $5,763 | 10.0× |
| 2007 | $80.00 | $6,875 | $4,789 | 6.9× |
| 2008 | $80.00 | $6,875 | $4,626 | 6.9× |
| 2010 | $80.00 | $6,875 | $6,071 | 6.9× |
| 2012 | $110 | $5,000 | $5,312 | 5.0× |
| 2015 | $130 | $4,231 | $3,301 | 4.2× |
| 2018 | $250 | $2,200 | $2,519 | 2.2× |
| 2020 | $415 | $1,325 | $2,092 | 1.3× |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
Best entry point in our set: 2003, turning $1,000 into $13,750. The S&P 500 from that same year: $7,727.
Now try it without hindsight. The wheel decides the year and the asset class, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick, and we simulate to today. LVMH is one of 258 positions on the wheel — including the ones that went to zero.
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