Stocks / BAC
What If You Had Invested in Bank of America 10 Years Ago?
Bank of America Corporation (BAC) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
BAC $49.42 ▼ -0.68% last close, Nov 06, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in BAC in November 2016, today it would be worth
$2,914
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,907
If you had put $500 a month into BAC since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$103,091
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $129,289
More options in the What If calculator.
BAC live price chart
BAC returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | -5.9% | -5.9% | $941 | +8.8% |
| 3 years | +72.8% | +20.0% | $1,728 | +18.7% |
| 5 years | +25.6% | +4.7% | $1,256 | +11.5% |
| 10 years | +191.4% | +11.3% | $2,914 | +14.6% |
| 20 years | +37.2% | +1.6% | $1,372 | +10.6% |
| Since 1985 | +3186.1% | +8.7% | $32,861 | — |
BAC year by year
Best full year: 2012 (+109.8%). Worst: 2008 (-63.1%).
| Year | BAC | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | -8.7% | +8.7% | |
| 2025 | +28.0% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | +33.9% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | +4.8% | +26.2% | |
| 2022 | -23.8% | -18.2% | |
| 2021 | +49.6% | +28.7% | |
| 2020 | -11.6% | +18.3% | |
| 2019 | +46.2% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | -15.0% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | +35.7% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | +33.4% | +12.0% | |
| 2015 | -4.8% | +1.2% | |
| 2014 | +15.7% | +13.5% | |
| 2013 | +34.5% | +32.3% | |
| 2012 | +109.8% | +16.0% | With capital rebuilt and lawsuits being settled, the stock more than doubled. |
| 2011 | -58.1% | +1.9% | Mortgage lawsuits and Europe's debt crisis pushed the stock to about $5, a loss of more than half for the year. |
| 2010 | -11.2% | +15.1% | |
| 2009 | +7.5% | +26.4% | |
| 2008 | -63.1% | -36.8% | Losses at Countrywide and Merrill Lynch piled up and the stock lost about two thirds. |
| 2007 | -18.8% | +5.1% |
BAC: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 1985 (491 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 315 (64%). Bank of America's long stretches of falling or flat prices made monthly investing win often, for nearly every start in 1999, 2007, 2008 and 2010, and most in 2022. The best case for monthly investing was a start in September 2008, when it finished the year 230% ahead.
Worst drop
BAC's worst fall in this history was -91.7%, a near wipe-out, from November 2006 to February 2009. Getting back to the old high took until May 2021: 147 months from the bottom and 14.5 years from the peak. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $83 at the low.
This is the 2008 crisis, and it was close to a wipe-out: Bank of America lost more than 90% from its 2006 high to its 2009 low, near $3 a share. Even with dividends reinvested, it took until 2021 to get back.
Bank of America dividends
BAC paid $1.16 per share over the last 12 months, in March, June, September and December. At $49.42 that is 2.35%, a moderate yield. From 2020 to 2025 the yearly payout grew +8.4% a year, well ahead of inflation. The yearly total did not fall once in the last ten years. Amounts are adjusted for splits.
| Year | Dividends / share | Change | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $1.08 | +8.0% | 1.96% |
| 2024 | $1.00 | +8.7% | 2.28% |
| 2023 | $0.92 | +7.0% | 2.73% |
| 2022 | $0.86 | +10.3% | 2.60% |
| 2021 | $0.78 | +8.3% | 1.75% |
| 2020 | $0.72 | +9.1% | 2.38% |
| 2019 | $0.66 | +22.2% | 1.87% |
| 2018 | $0.54 | +38.5% | 2.19% |
| 2017 | $0.39 | +56.0% | 1.32% |
| 2016 | $0.25 | +25.0% | 1.13% |
Yield = each year’s dividends divided by the price at the end of the year.
BAC dividend history: last 12 payments
| Ex-dividend date | Amount | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 04, 2026 | $0.3200 | +14.3% |
| Jun 05, 2026 | $0.2800 | +0.0% |
| Mar 06, 2026 | $0.2800 | +0.0% |
| Dec 05, 2025 | $0.2800 | +0.0% |
| Sep 05, 2025 | $0.2800 | +7.7% |
| Jun 06, 2025 | $0.2600 | +0.0% |
| Mar 07, 2025 | $0.2600 | +0.0% |
| Dec 06, 2024 | $0.2600 | +0.0% |
| Sep 06, 2024 | $0.2600 | +8.3% |
| Jun 07, 2024 | $0.2400 | +0.0% |
| Feb 29, 2024 | $0.2400 | +0.0% |
| Nov 30, 2023 | $0.2400 | — |
How much Bank of America do you need for $1,000 a month?
About $511,241, or roughly 10,345 shares at $49.42. That uses BAC's last 12 months of dividends ($1.16 a share, a 2.35% yield) and is before tax.
| Income | Invest | Shares | Paid as |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $255,621 | 5,172 | $1,500/qtr |
| $1,000 | $511,241 | 10,345 | $3,000/qtr |
| $2,000 | $1,022,483 | 20,690 | $6,000/qtr |
BAC pays quarterly (ex-dividend in Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec), so “$1,000 a month” really arrives as about $3,000 four times a year.
The payout grew 8.4% a year over the last five years. If it kept that pace, about $227,218 invested today, with nothing added and nothing reinvested, would be paying $1,000 a month ten years from now. That is a projection, not a promise.
These are mostly qualified dividends, taxed at 0%, 15% or 20% at the federal level depending on your income, plus any state tax. In an IRA or Roth IRA there is no tax on them along the way.
Want to build toward it with monthly buys? Try the dividend calculator with BAC's numbers filled in.
Stock splits
- November 1986: 2-for-1
- February 1997: 2-for-1
- August 2004: 2-for-1
One share bought before 1986 is 8 shares today.
About Bank of America
| Company | Bank of America Corporation |
| Listed | NYSE (current company formed in 1998) |
| Sector | Financials (bank) |
| Dividend | Paid; cut to one cent in 2009, rising since 2014 |
Bank of America is the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, after JPMorgan Chase. Today's company took shape in 1998, when NationsBank of Charlotte bought BankAmerica of San Francisco and took its name, so the price history here before 1998 is NationsBank's.
The 2008 crisis nearly broke it. In 2008 it bought Countrywide Financial, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, and in September agreed to buy Merrill Lynch. Countrywide's bad loans brought years of losses and tens of billions of dollars in legal settlements. The bank took $45 billion in government bailout money and cut its quarterly dividend to one cent.
In August 2011, with the stock near $6, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway invested $5 billion in preferred shares that came with warrants to buy common stock. Berkshire later used the warrants and became the largest shareholder, though it has been selling since 2024.
How rates move a bank stock
Banks earn the gap between what they pay on deposits and what they earn on loans and bonds. Rising rates usually widen that gap, but they also cut the value of bonds a bank already owns. In 2023, after Silicon Valley Bank failed, investors focused on Bank of America's large paper losses on long-term bonds bought when rates were low.
The dividend after the crisis
The quarterly dividend sat at one cent from 2009 until 2014, when regulators let it rise to five cents. It has grown every year since, yet it is still below the 64 cents a quarter the bank paid in 2008.
Questions about BAC
Did BAC beat the S&P 500?
No. Over the last 20 years it trailed by 9.0 percentage points a year: +1.6% a year for BAC against +10.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. It also fell harder at its worst (-91.7% against -50.8% for SPY over the same history).
Does Warren Buffett still own Bank of America?
Berkshire Hathaway was the largest shareholder for years after its 2011 investment, but it began selling in 2024 and has cut the stake a lot. Berkshire's latest quarterly 13F filing shows the current number.