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“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

— Warren Buffett

The Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a decade-long holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into Copart Inc (NASD: CPRT)? Today, we examine the outcome of a decade-long investment into the stock back in 2009.

Start date: 06/18/2009
$10,000

06/18/2009
$84,960

06/17/2019
End date: 06/17/2019
Start price/share: $8.62
End price/share: $73.22
Starting shares: 1,160.09
Ending shares: 1,160.09
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 749.42%
Average annual return: 23.85%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $84,960.02

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 23.85%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $84,960.02 today (as of 06/17/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 749.42% (something to think about: how might CPRT shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“Every day that you’re not selling an asset in your portfolio, you’re choosing to buy it.” — Sam Zell