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“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

— Warren Buffett

The Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a five year holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into F5 Networks, Inc. (NASD: FFIV)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2014.

Start date: 05/14/2014
$10,000

05/14/2014
$13,868

05/13/2019
End date: 05/13/2019
Start price/share: $103.43
End price/share: $143.45
Starting shares: 96.68
Ending shares: 96.68
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 38.69%
Average annual return: 6.76%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $13,868.93

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 6.76%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $13,868.93 today (as of 05/13/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 38.69% (something to think about: how might FFIV shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“The stock market is the story of cycles and of the human behavior that is responsible for overreactions in both directions.” — Seth Klarman