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

— Warren Buffett

The Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a two-decade holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into Fiserv Inc (NASD: FISV)? Today, we examine the outcome of a two-decade investment into the stock back in 1999.

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

04/19/1999
$145,466

04/16/2019
End date: 04/16/2019
Start price/share: $5.84
End price/share: $85.01
Starting shares: 1,712.33
Ending shares: 1,712.33
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 1,355.65%
Average annual return: 14.32%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $145,466.43

As shown above, the two-decade investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 14.32%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $145,466.43 today (as of 04/16/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,355.65% (something to think about: how might FISV shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“This company looks cheap, that company looks cheap, but the overall economy could completely screw it up. The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing.” — David Tepper