Apple Inc. (AAPL), Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA), Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO): Why It Pays to Invest in CEOs

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The company’s growing brand recognition, innovative technology, and disruptive retail strategy aren’t reflected in its financial statements. Moreover, many investors continue to make the mistake of valuing Tesla by the same near-term benchmarks used for established automakers. However, investors willing to take a long-term approach and make a bet on Musk will likely see outsize gains if Musk is able to deliver on his promise of making Tesla the greatest automaker of the 21st century.

Value creators
Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and more recently Marissa Mayer and Elon Musk are value creators and disruptive innovators within their respective industries. For investors, the trick is in recognizing the visionary CEOs ahead of the market. It’s by keeping an eye to the future that these CEOs are able to create lasting shareholder value.

To bring this full circle, I’ll leave you with a bit of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) hindsight: $1,000 invested in Apple in 1997 when Steve Jobs took back the helm would be worth more than $170,000 today. So, who’s the next Steve Jobs? Only time will tell.

The article Why It Pays to Invest in CEOs originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tamara Rutter owns shares of Apple, Amazon.com, and Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com, Apple, Google, and Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com, Apple, Google, and Tesla Motors.

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