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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 Mylan NV (NASD: MYL)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2014.

Start date: 07/31/2014
$10,000

07/31/2014
$4,341

07/30/2019
End date: 07/30/2019
Start price/share: $49.37
End price/share: $21.43
Starting shares: 202.55
Ending shares: 202.55
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -56.59%
Average annual return: -15.37%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $4,341.32

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -15.37%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $4,341.32 today (as of 07/30/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -56.59% (something to think about: how might MYL shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Never test the depth of a river with both feet.” — Warren Buffett