If you took the plunge and bought $10,000 worth of Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) shares five years ago, you'd have earned some term-deposit-busting returns by now.
Now, it would have taken some steely nerves to go bargain-hunting on the ASX five years ago.
On 27 March 2020, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was only just beginning to show signs of what was to become a rapid rebound from the COVID-19-driven market crash of the previous weeks.
As you can see on the chart below, Telstra shares didn't really join in that rebound rally until 30 October 2020, when the ASX 200 telco closed the day trading for $2.68 a share.
But we won't go cherry-picking our dates here.
So, just how much has $10,000 of Telstra stock purchased five years returned?
Let's take a look.
How have Telstra shares tracked over this time?
On 27 March 2020, you could have picked up Telstra shares for $3.04 each.
Meaning your $10,000 investment would have netted you 3,289 shares (exclusive of brokerage fees).
On Tuesday, shares in the ASX 200 telco closed the day trading for $4.14 apiece.
According to my trusty calculator, those shares are then currently worth $13,616.46. Or a gain of 36.2%.
But let's not forget that Telstra is also a favoured dividend stock.
And for good reason.
If you'd bought shares in the telco five years ago, you'd have been eligible to receive the past 10 fully franked dividends. (Telstra will pay out its FY 2025 interim dividend of 9.5 cents a share this Friday, 28 March. Telstra stock traded ex-dividend on 26 February.)
All told, those 10 fully franked dividend payouts work out to 85 cents per share.
Now, we'll assume you spent those dividends on some fun extras as they came in, rather than reinvesting them.
Adding that back into yesterday's closing price of $4.14, the accumulated value of the Telstra stock you bought five years ago comes out to $4.99 a share.
Highlighting the significant boost that passive income can offer to your long-term returns, that means the 3,289 Telstra shares you bought five years ago for $10,000 have now returned $16,412.11.
Or a gain of 64.1%, with potential tax benefits from those franking credits.
Why did Telstra increase its last dividend payment?
When Telstra reported its half-year results on February 20, management pleased passive income investors by increasing the interim dividend by 5.6% to 9.5 cents a share.
This came as the company managed to trim its operating expenses and achieved a 7.1% year-on-year increase in profit after tax to $1.1 billion.
Telstra shares closed up 5.6% on the day the company released its results.
