Essex Property Trust has outperformed the market over the past 90 days by 6.14%, generating a 8.61% return for its investors over the time period. Now, given this information, it may seem like price appreciation alone is the best way to have made money on this stock, that's not actually the case.

This is because Essex Property Trust has been paying out a regular cash dividend every year over the past 15 years. Investors who fail to account for dividends are missing a key ingredient in calculating a stock's profitability over time.

Visualzing $100 Cash Growth Over Last 15 Years

By looking at the price chart of ESS's common stock one can see that price appreciation alone misses a fair bit of value if one's considering holding the stock for a long period of time. This is the case for other equities too; check out all Benzinga's dividend data here or in an enhanced view on Benzinga Pro.