CMC – Dividend Returns, History & Calculator

Milestones on the way

By year 13, the compounding really starts to show. Your total dividends collected reach $3,274 against a total investment of $25,600. At this point, your portfolio is throwing off $410 per year in dividends alone.

By year 17, the annual dividend climbs to around your initial contribution. For a starting investment of $10,000, the yearly dividend now sits at approximately $522, a powerful “income on autopilot” milestone.

After two decades, cumulative dividends total $6,754 versus $34,000 invested, nearly a 20% recovery of capital purely from income. Yield on cost reaches 1.82%.

At year 25, the income engine takes over. The portfolio’s annual dividend of $814 is greater than total contributions to date ($40,000), and cumulative dividends exceed $10,231.

By year 30, the DRIP snowball is in full force. Yearly income reaches $1,061, cumulative dividends total $14,776, and the DRIP portfolio value stands at $1,714,391, compared with $1,580,766 if dividends weren’t reinvested.

How we estimate these numbers

We use the latest calculator inputs for CMC, price $68.82, dividend per period $0.20 (4x/year), along with historic growth assumptions: price growth 16.05% and dividend growth 5.24% annually.

We simulate month by month for 30 years. Every month, a $100 contribution is added and converted to shares at that month’s price. Dividends are paid roughly evenly across the year based on the dividend frequency; in the DRIP path, each payout immediately buys additional shares at the then-current price. In the No-DRIP path, dividends accrue as cash. Prices grow using a monthly rate derived from the annual price growth. Dividends per share increase once per year at the annual dividend growth rate.

This model isn’t investment advice; it’s a simple, transparent framework that illustrates how reinvesting dividends can accelerate both income and total return over time.