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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 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 Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASD: VRTX), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a decade-long holding period.

Start date: 07/13/2009
$10,000

07/13/2009
$54,206

07/10/2019
End date: 07/10/2019
Start price/share: $32.99
End price/share: $178.76
Starting shares: 303.12
Ending shares: 303.12
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 441.86%
Average annual return: 18.42%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $54,206.25

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 18.42%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $54,206.25 today (as of 07/10/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 441.86% (something to think about: how might VRTX shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“If I’ve learned one thing in this life it’s this: even if you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” — Daymond John