How Much Money Would You Have if You Followed Buffett into IBM?

In the investment world, there is perhaps no single individual who holds more respect and power to influence the broader landscape than Warren Buffett. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha," Buffett is the billionaire head of Berkshire Hathaway. In Buffett's decades at the helm of this firm, he has grown Berkshire from a small textiles company into a behemoth multinational conglomerate and one of the largest companies in the world.

Buffett's sagacity when it comes to investments is legendary, and his massive success has driven many investors to study his every move. One of his most controversial investment decisions has been Berkshire's longstanding position in IBM (IBM), the New York-based technology company. Buffett first bought up IBM shares in early 2011, eventually stockpiling about 8.6% of all of the company's outstanding shares. If you had joined him, how much money would you have now?

Bought IBM on the Rise, But It Failed to Meet Expectations

IBM has turned out to be one of Buffett's more controversial investments, as the stock has not performed as well as many would have expected. Buffett bought IBM shares throughout the first few months of 2011, when the company seemed to be on the rise. According to CNBC, he bought those shares at an average price of $170.43 each. If you had invested, say, $10,000 in IBM alongside Buffett, this would have netted you about 59 shares of IBM.

In the time since Buffett made his purchase, IBM has suffered 19 consecutive quarters of declining year-over-year total revenues. Some analysts have attributed this to the company's shift away from traditional operating systems and equipment in April 2012. Since that time, IBM has moved toward a focus on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and other business services.

Looking at the price of the stock alone, your 59 shares peaked in value in March 2013, when they reached $215.90 per share. At this time, your initial $10,000 would have turned into $12,738. However, that peak did not last. As of this writing, IBM shares are trading at $152.90, meaning your $10,000 would now be worth $9,021.10. Because of the stock's lackluster performance, Buffett sold off about one-third of his stake in the company in May 2017.

Dividends, Too

That's not the entire story, though. While Buffett claims to have taken a loss of about $2 billion on his IBM investment over the years, that does not include the dividends he has received for his position. IBM has not missed a quarterly dividend payment since 1916, and in fact it has seen its dividend double since 2010.

Because of that, Buffett has gained about $1.7 billion in IBM dividends throughout his investment history. Taking into account your hypothetical investment, that would certainly help to recoup the losses suffered because of the decline in stock price, although likely not entirely.