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

Start date: 07/21/2014
$10,000

07/21/2014
$9,970

07/18/2019
End date: 07/18/2019
Start price/share: $25.76
End price/share: $25.68
Starting shares: 388.20
Ending shares: 388.20
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -0.31%
Average annual return: -0.06%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $9,970.07

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -0.06%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $9,970.07 today (as of 07/18/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -0.31% (something to think about: how might LKQ shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“Never test the depth of a river with both feet.” — Warren Buffett