The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price has continued to deliver wealth to investors over the past five years.
Arguably, investing your money in the ASX's safest and most reliable companies can reap some serious rewards over time.
Below, we wind the clock back and calculate how much you would have made if you'd bought $10,000 worth of Rio Tinto shares five years ago.
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How much would your initial investment be worth now?
If you spent $10,000 on Rio Tinto shares exactly 5 years ago, you would have picked them up for $61.89 apiece. The purchase would deliver approximately 161 shares without reinvesting the dividends.
Looking at yesterday's closing price, the Rio Tinto share price finished at $118.09. This means those 161 shares would be worth $19,012.49.
When looking at percentage terms, this implies an average yearly return of 13.71%. In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has given back roughly 4.67% over the same timeframe.
As you can see from the above, investing in Rio Tinto shares would have almost doubled your initial investment.
In comparison, investing the same amount in an ASX 200 index-tracking fund would have netted you a total figure of $12,561.51 (albeit excluding any dividends).
And the Rio Tinto dividends?
Over the course of the last five years, Rio Tinto has made a total of 11 dividend payments from 2017 to 2022. Its latest dividend distribution was significantly increased on the back of favourable market conditions, notably the rise of iron ore prices.
Adding those 12 dividend payments gives us an amount of $41.06 per share. Calculating the number of shares owned against the total dividend payment gives us a figure of $6,610.66.
When putting both the initial investment gains and dividend distribution, an investor would have $25,623.15 worth of Rio Tinto shares.
Rio Tino share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, the Rio Tinto share price has travelled 2% higher but is up almost 18% year to date.
The company's shares hit a 52-week low of $87.28 in November before rebounding higher in the following months.
Rio Tinto presides a market capitalisation of roughly $43.84 billion and has more than 371.22 million shares on its registry.
