If You Invested $100 Over The Past 5 Years In This Dividend Stock, Here's How Much You Would Have Today

Mid-America Apartment MAA has outperformed the market over the past 90 days by 8.57%, generating a 8.33% return for its investors over the time period. Now, given this information, it may seem like price appreciation alone is the best way to have made money on this stock, that's not actually the case.

This is because Mid-America Apartment has been paying out a regular cash dividend every year over the past 5 years. Investors who fail to account for dividends are missing a key ingredient in calculating a stock's profitability over time.

Visualizing Mid-America Apartment's Return Over Last 5

Finally -- what's the point of all this? The key insight to take from this article is to note how much of a difference re-investing dividends can make in your cash growth over a period of time. Dividends surely can matter.

You can check out Benzinga's dividend data here or in an enhanced view on Benzinga Pro