The last 10 years have been good to the Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) share price.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) retailer is behind such names as Kmart, Bunnings, and Officeworks. In past years, the company was also charged with Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL). The now near-$23 billion supermarket operator was spun-out of Wesfarmers in 2018.
Long-term investors have seen plenty of shakeups at the retail giant over the last decade, and they've been rewarded handsomely.
If you bought $1,000 of Wesfarmers shares in December 2012, you would have paid $26.56 apiece and walked away with 37 shares.
The Wesfarmers share price now trades at $47.66 – 79% higher than it was around 10 years ago. That gives our figurative parcel a value of $1,763.42 today.
But what kind of return can long-term shareholders enjoy when we factor in the company's dividends? Let's take a look.
How much have Wesfarmers shares paid in dividends in 10 years?
Here are all the dividends handed to those invested in Wesfarmers shares over the last decade:
| Wesfarmers dividends' pay date | Type | Dividend amount |
| October 2022 | Final | $1 |
| March 2022 | Interim | 80 cents |
| October 2021 | Final | 90 cents |
| March 2021 | Interim | 88 cents |
| October 2020 | Final | 77 cents |
| October 2020 | Special | 18 cents |
| March 2020 | Interim | 75 cents |
| October 2019 | Final | 78 cents |
| April 2019 | Interim | $1 |
| April 2019 | Special | $1 |
| September 2018 | Final | $1.20 |
| April 2018 | Interim | $1.03 |
| September 2017 | Final | $1.20 |
| March 2017 | Interim | $1.03 |
| October 2016 | Final | 95 cents |
| April 2016 | Interim | 91 cents |
| September 2015 | Final | $1.11 |
| April 2015 | Interim | 89 cents |
| December 2014 | Special | 25 cents |
| October 2014 | Final | $1.05 |
| October 2014 | Special | 10 cents |
| April 2014 | Interim | 85 cents |
| September 2013 | Final | $1.03 |
| March 2013 | Interim | 77 cents |
| Total: | $20.43 |
Did you buy Wesfarmers shares in December 2012? If you did, you've likely received $20.43 per share in dividends over the life of your investment.
That means a $1,000 investment 10 years ago has yielded $755.91 in dividends.
It also means, between the stock's capital gains and dividends, our figurative investor may have seen a whopping 152% return on their investment.
And that's before considering further gains potentially realised through compounding using the company's dividend reinvestment plan (DRP).
Additionally, all dividends paid out by the retailer in that time have been fully franked and, thus, could have brought extra benefits at tax time.
Right now, Wesfarmers shares trade with a 3.77% dividend yield.
