“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— 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 decade-long period?
Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2009, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Biogen Inc (NASD: BIIB), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a decade-long holding period.
| Start date: | 05/08/2009 |
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| End date: | 05/07/2019 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $48.60 | ||||
| End price/share: | $229.02 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 205.76 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 205.76 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 371.23% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 16.76% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $47,111.32 | ||||
The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 16.76%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $47,111.32 today (as of 05/07/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 371.23% (something to think about: how might BIIB shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” — George Soros
