Of all of the blue chip shares on the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares probably command the largest army of long-term investors.
This is likely down to a few factors. For one, CBA is one of the largest companies in Australia, and certainly the largest consumer-facing one. A good chunk of us bank with CBA, and use its products and services daily. For another, Commonwealth Bank used to be a publicly owned company before it was privatised back in the 1990s. The manner of its privatisation, where shares were offered to the general public in huge tranches, resulted in a huge retail base of 'mum-and-dad investors'.
Many of these original buyers of CBA still hold their shares today.
And they have always been lavishly rewarded for doing so.
Back in the 1990s, CBA shares were floated at a few different prices, one as low as $5.40. Given the bank hit $25 a share in 1999, $60 in 2007, $95 in 2015 and $192 (its current all-time high) in 2025, selling this ASX bank stock has always looked like a mistake in hindsight.
Particularly when considering that these healthy capital gains have always been accompanied by even healthier dividend returns. Like its peers in the banking sector, CBA has tended to pay fat, fully franked and rising dividends, albeit with some short-term volatility.
Considering CBA shares' history of capital growth, as well as its dividend track record, many investors might want to know how just how profitable this bank stock has been over the last ten years. That's what we'll be diving into today.
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CBA shares: Just how much money have investors made since 2016?
So let's assume an investor bought $10,000 worth of CBA shares back in July of 2016. Early in that month, you could have picked up this bank for just $72.56, meaning $10,000 would have got you approximately 138 shares.
At the time of writing, those same shares are going for $164.56 each, down 0.28% for the session thus far. That means our $10,000 would today be worth about $22,710, representing a compounded average growth rate of about 8.53% per annum. Not bad for a big ASX bank.
But that's before we get to the dividends.
CBA has paid out two dividends every year since 2016. These have varied from year to year, but have trended upwards over time. For example, the bank doled out $4.29 worth of dividends over 2017, $3.50 in 2021, and $4.85 over 2025.
Since mid-2026, investors have enjoyed a total of $41.81 in dividends per share. Our investors' 138 shares would have thus yielded a total of roughly $5,770 in dividend income over the last ten years as well.
So our investor who started with $10,000 ten years ago would today have a position worth approximately $28,480. That represents an overall compounded growth rate of 11.03% per annum. Not a bad return for a bank. But let's see what CBA shares deliver over the next ten years.
