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“When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”

— Warren Buffett

The above quote from Warren Buffett is timeless, and brings into focus the choice about time horizon that any investor should think about before buying a stock they are considering. Behind every stock is an actual business; what will that business look like over a two-decade period?

Today, let’s look backwards in time to 1999, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Celgene Corp (NASD: CELG), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a two-decade holding period.

Start date: 04/19/1999
$10,000

04/19/1999
$1,260,533

04/16/2019
End date: 04/16/2019
Start price/share: $0.75
End price/share: $94.55
Starting shares: 13,333.33
Ending shares: 13,333.33
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 12,506.67%
Average annual return: 27.35%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $1,260,533.30

As we can see, the two-decade investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 27.35%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $1,260,533.30 today (as of 04/16/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 12,506.67% (something to think about: how might CELG shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Another great investment quote to think about:
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” — Woody Allen