Auto parts retailer O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY 0.32%) made big headlines this summer when the stock split 15-for-1, but a stock split doesn't change the value of an investor's total position. So even though long-term investors in O'Reilly now have 15 times the number of shares, it doesn't necessarily mean they've made money.
Here's how O'Reilly stock has actually performed for investors who bought in prior to the split.
Image source: O'Reilly Automotive.
1-year investors: Modest gains
Investors who bought shares of O'Reilly a year ago are looking at a solid gain of 19.2%. After the June stock split, the share price rose significantly throughout July, and were up nearly 30% by late September. In October, though, the stock hit a rough patch and gave back much of those gains.
The S&P 500, by contrast, is up 12.9% over the past year, meaning O'Reilly stockholders are beating the market by a decent 6.3 percentage points.
However, the true test of an investment isn't how it holds up over a single year, but how well it does over the long term. Should O'Reilly stockholders who bought shares three years ago be happy, too?
3-year investors: A mixed picture
The picture is pretty similar for three-year investors: O'Reilly shares are beating the market, but not by much.
Since Dec. 5, 2022, O'Reilly's shares have appreciated by a healthy 75.5%, about 6.7 percentage points better than the S&P 500, which is up 68.8% over the same time frame.
What's more interesting is that the stock spent about as much time losing to the market over the past three years as it did beating it. For example, O'Reilly stock was underperforming the S&P 500 for most of 2024, but outperformed it for most of 2025.
That said, when most investors picture "market-beating returns," they're not envisioning a few lousy percentage points. Has O'Reilly ever delivered big outperformance for its shareholders?
5-year-plus investors: Now we're talking
The difference between a three-year investment in O'Reilly and a five-year investment is huge. Over the past five years, O'Reilly stock has absolutely crushed the return of the S&P 500, 229% to 86%:
NASDAQ: ORLY
Key Data Points
That advantage holds -- and in most cases, gets more pronounced -- the farther back you go. For example, a 10-year investment in O'Reilly has returned 473%, beating the S&P 500's 229% return by more than 244 percentage points.
O'Reilly Automotive is a case study in why buy-and-hold investing is a smart play. Investors who bought in right before the stock split in June and then sold in August (when the initial July surge first ended) would have made about a 12% return, beating the market by about four percentage points. Long-term investors, on the other hand, who bought their shares and held them for 15 years are sitting on a 2,300% return, with the possibility of plenty more to come.
