The Equity Baggers

Coined by legendary fund manager Peter Lynch in his 1989 book One Up on Wall Street, "bagger" is a term borrowed from baseball, where the number of bases reached by a runner measures the success of a play. Applied to investing, it describes share counters that have increased by a multiple of the original buy price. Thus, a two-bagger means the price has doubled, while a five-bagger indicates an increase of five times the purchase price.

 

 

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For this post, I will share three counters in our portfolios that have reached at least a two-bagger status, based on the average buy price against the current price as of market close on 28 Aug 2026. For USD counters, the average entry price is based on the current forex rate of USD/SGD 1.00/1.27. It is worth noting that the following counters were not bought in one shot, but rather across separate tranches. Hence, there were some tranches that had hit multiple baggers, while others gained less than 100%.

Here are the three counters:

Counter #1: Apple (Bedokian Portfolio)

Average entry price: USD 96.74. Current price: USD 319.70.

Apple is one of the longest continuously held counters in our Bedokian Portfolio since 2014. Apart from a partial divestment in March 2024 and some buybacks just a few weeks later, it has still achieved an overall gain of 230.47%.

In hindsight, Apple's relative lag in the artificial intelligence (AI) race paradoxically gave it a "technology counter without the AI hype" safe haven status¹. The company recently announced a refreshed Mac Mini and Mac Studio range, and the new incoming CEO, John Ternus, is likely to present new iPhones in the coming days, which may include the company's first foldable model.

Counter #2: OCBC (CPF-IS Portfolio)

Average entry price: SGD 12.11. Current price: SGD 31.07.

OCBC is one of the three local banks attributed to the strong performance of the Straits Times Index over the past couple of years. Achieving a bagger status for a local blue-chip counter (in this case, 156.56%) within a short timeframe is quite rare. Our last entry price less than a year ago in September 2025 was at SGD 16.45; now it has almost doubled this number.

The current price-to-book (P/B) ratio for OCBC is approximately 2.17, which among the three banks stands in the middle, with DBS at approximately 3.07 and UOB at approximately 1.27. In my view, the current price looks elevated on a P/B basis relative to historical norms. That said, some investors may point to the forward dividend yield of 3.03% and the bank's guided stable-to-improving income outlook for FY2026 to justify further interest in this counter.

Counter #3: ASML (Bedokian Portfolio)

Average entry price: USD 770.13. Current price: USD 1696.16.

Only four tranches were accumulated between June and September 2025, and the gains within approximately a year stand at 120.24%; a result that is, frankly, an impressive one. I had written about ASML back in June 2025 (read here).

ASML possesses what is arguably the most formidable moat in the field of lithography; it is the world's sole commercial supplier of Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. This EUV monopoly, coupled with AI-driven demand expansion and a record huge order backlog (around EUR 38.8 billion), has propelled its share price to where it stands today. The main concern is that the current price may be somewhat overvalued: at a 5-year expected Price/Earnings-to-Growth (PEG) ratio of 2.07, so my view is that future price appreciation may not be as rapid as what the past year has delivered.

The Bedokian's Take

Hidden in plain sight across the three counters above are two main factors contributing to their bagger status: economic moat and the power of compounding.

Among the three, Apple and OCBC share elements of both moat and compounding, while ASML's rapid gain over the past year or so is more directly attributable to moat, specifically the market's repricing of an irreplaceable technology monopoly. Therefore, when looking for counters with bagger potential, ensure that the company has goods or services that people genuinely need, and give it the time required for its value to be reflected in the price.

Disclosure

The Bedokian is vested in the above three companies.

All figures are obtained from Yahoo Finance unless otherwise specified.

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Disclaimer

1 – Wearden, Graeme. Apple becomes second $5tn company as investors flee AI stocks. The Guardian. 28 Jul 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/28/apple-second-ever-5tn-company-as-investors-flee-ai-stocks  (accessed 27 Aug 2026)