“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— Warren Buffett
A 10-year holding period offers a useful lens for evaluating long-term equity returns, particularly for a dividend-paying stock such as SBA Communications Corp (NASD: SBAC). Based on the figures below, a $10,000 investment in SBA Communications stock on 08/26/2016, with dividends reinvested, would have grown to $18,200.76 as of 08/25/2026. That equates to a total return of 82.03% and an average annual return of 6.17%.
SBAC 10-Year Return Summary
| Start date: | 08/26/2016 |
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| End date: | 08/25/2026 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $113.85 | ||||
| End price/share: | $187.62 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 87.83 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 97.02 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $23.27 | ||||
| Total return: | 82.03% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 6.17% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $18,200.76 | ||||
The result reflects both share-price appreciation and the compounding effect of dividend reinvestment. Starting from a share price of $113.85, SBAC rose to $187.62 over the period. Meanwhile, reinvested dividends increased the share count from 87.83 to 97.02, which meaningfully contributed to ending value.
[These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
What Drove the 10-Year Return?
SBA Communications is best known as a wireless infrastructure company focused on owning and operating communications towers. That business model is often characterized by recurring lease revenue, long-term carrier relationships, and operating leverage as additional equipment is colocated on existing tower assets. For long-term investors, those features can support durable cash generation, though returns still depend heavily on valuation, capital allocation, and the pace of industry investment.
In this 10-year example, the return profile was moderate rather than exceptional. An 82.03% total return over a decade is solid in absolute terms, but it also illustrates that even businesses with defensive infrastructure characteristics can produce uneven long-run equity outcomes depending on starting valuation and subsequent market conditions.
Dividend Reinvestment and Compounding
Dividend reinvestment matters because it converts cash distributions into additional shares, which can then generate their own future dividends and participate in future price appreciation. Over the past 10 years, SBA Communications Corp paid $23.27 per share in dividends. In the return calculation above, each dividend is assumed to have been reinvested at the closing price on the ex-dividend date.
That assumption is important. Without reinvestment, ending wealth would depend only on the original share count and the stock’s price change. With reinvestment, the investor ended the period owning more shares than at the start, which increased the final portfolio value.
Key Takeaways
- A $10,000 investment in SBAC in August 2016 grew to $18,200.76 by August 2026.
- Total return was 82.03%, including reinvested dividends.
- Average annual return was 6.17%.
- Share count rose from 87.83 to 97.02 through dividend reinvestment.
Current Yield and Yield on Cost
Using the most recent annualized dividend rate of $5 per share, SBAC has a current yield of approximately 2.67% based on the end price of $187.62. Another useful measure is yield on cost, which compares the current annualized dividend to the original purchase price. On that basis, a $5 annual dividend against the initial $113.85 share price produces a yield on cost of about 4.39%.
These two metrics answer different questions:
- Current yield shows the income rate available at today’s share price.
- Yield on cost shows how the income stream compares with the original entry price.
Yield on cost can be informative for tracking the income growth of a long-held position, but it should not replace current valuation analysis. A stock should still be assessed based on present cash flow, balance sheet strength, growth prospects, and the return implied by the current market price.
Bottom Line
A 2016 investment in SBA Communications stock delivered a positive 10-year outcome, turning $10,000 into $18,200.76 with dividends reinvested. The result underscores two core drivers of long-term equity returns: business performance and disciplined compounding. For SBAC, the combination of price appreciation and reinvested dividends produced a respectable gain, even if the annualized return was not especially high relative to stronger equity cycles.
“If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.” — Peter Lynch
