“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— Warren Buffett
One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a ten year holding period for an investor who was considering IPG Photonics Corp (NASD: IPGP) back in 2009, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
Start date: | 05/28/2009 |
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End date: | 05/24/2019 | ||||
Start price/share: | $10.09 | ||||
End price/share: | $131.01 | ||||
Starting shares: | 991.08 | ||||
Ending shares: | 991.08 | ||||
Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
Total return: | 1,198.41% | ||||
Average annual return: | 29.24% | ||||
Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
Ending investment: | $129,825.23 |
As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 29.24%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $129,825.23 today (as of 05/24/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,198.41% (something to think about: how might IPGP shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“Never is there a better time to buy a stock than when a basically sound company, for whatever reason, temporarily falls out of favor with the investment community.” — Geraldine Weiss