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— Warren Buffett

Avery Dennison Corp (NYSE: AVY) has produced a strong long-term total return over the past decade, illustrating how share-price appreciation and dividend reinvestment can compound over time. For an investor who committed $10,000 to Avery Dennison stock in October 2016 and reinvested dividends along the way, the position would have grown substantially by mid-October 2026.

The result matters not simply as a backward-looking performance figure, but as a practical example of how long holding periods can change the economics of an equity investment. Avery Dennison is not a high-yield stock, so most of the value creation in this period came from a combination of business growth, market re-rating, and disciplined dividend reinvestment rather than from income alone.

AVY 10-Year Return Details

AVY 10-Year Return Details
Start date:	10/19/2016	$10,000 10/19/2016   $27,479 10/16/2026
End date:	10/16/2026
Start price/share:	$76.65
End price/share:	$175.31
Starting shares:	130.46
Ending shares:	156.74
Dividends reinvested/share:	$27.66
Total return:	174.78%
Average annual return:	10.64%
Starting investment:	$10,000.00
Ending investment:	$27,479.03

Using the figures above, a $10,000 investment in Avery Dennison stock would have grown to $27,479.03 as of 10/16/2026, assuming dividends were reinvested. That represents a cumulative total return of 174.78% and an average annual return of 10.64%. [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

What Drove the Avery Dennison Total Return?

The 10-year return came from two sources:

• Share-price appreciation: the stock price rose from $76.65 to $175.31.
• Dividend reinvestment: cash dividends were used to purchase additional shares, increasing the share count from 130.46 to 156.74.

That distinction matters. Price appreciation created the bulk of the gain, but reinvested dividends added incremental exposure over time. In a compounding framework, those added shares then participated in future upside as well. Even when the dividend yield is moderate, the cumulative effect over a decade can be meaningful.

How Dividend Reinvestment Changed the Outcome

Over the period covered here, Avery Dennison paid $27.66 per share in dividends. In this analysis, each dividend is assumed to be reinvested into additional AVY shares using the closing price on the ex-dividend date. That process increased the investor’s ownership from 130.46 shares to 156.74 shares.

For long-term holders, reinvestment can be especially effective when done consistently through different market conditions. It removes the need to time cash deployment and allows compounding to work automatically. The tradeoff, of course, is that investors seeking current income would evaluate the cash yield differently than investors focused primarily on total return.

Current Yield and Yield on Cost

Based on the most recent annualized dividend rate of $4 per share, AVY has a current dividend yield of approximately 2.28%, using the ending share price of $175.31.

Another useful measure is yield on cost, which compares the current annual dividend to the original purchase price rather than the current market price. Using the same $4 annualized dividend and the 2016 purchase price of $76.65, the yield on cost works out to approximately 5.22%.

That figure does not mean the market currently yields 5.22%; it means an investor who bought at that earlier price is now receiving annual dividend income equal to 5.22% of the original cost basis, before considering the impact of any reinvested shares. Yield on cost is most useful as a way to illustrate dividend growth over time from the perspective of a long-term holder.

A Brief Look at the Business Context

Avery Dennison is best known for pressure-sensitive materials, labeling technologies, and radio-frequency identification solutions used across consumer goods, logistics, apparel, and industrial markets. That mix gives the company exposure to both mature packaging demand and higher-value identification and tracking applications. Over long periods, investors in businesses like Avery Dennison often benefit when steady cash generation, operating discipline, and recurring demand support both dividend payments and share-price appreciation.

As with most industrial and materials-linked businesses, results can still be influenced by input costs, end-market demand, foreign exchange movements, and broader economic conditions. That is one reason long-horizon returns rarely move in a straight line, even when the full-period outcome appears strong.

Key Takeaways

• A $10,000 investment in Avery Dennison stock in October 2016 grew to $27,479.03 by October 2026.
• The position generated a 174.78% total return with dividends reinvested.
• The annualized return over the period was 10.64%.
• Dividend reinvestment increased the share count from 130.46 to 156.74.
• Using a $4 annualized dividend, the current yield is about 2.28%, while yield on cost is about 5.22%.

Viewed over a full decade, Avery Dennison demonstrates how a quality dividend-paying stock can create value through both capital appreciation and compounding income. The historical return does not answer what AVY will do next, but it does show the scale of wealth creation that can result when a solid business is held through time rather than judged solely by shorter-term price swings.

“A stock is not just a ticker symbol or an electronic blip; it is an ownership interest in an actual business, with an underlying value that does not depend on its share price.” — Benjamin Graham