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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 investment philosophy practiced by Warren Buffett calls for investors to take a long-term horizon when making an investment, such as a decade-long holding period (or even longer), and reconsider making the investment in the first place if unable to envision holding the stock for at least five years. Today, we look at how such a long-term strategy would have done for investors in SVB Financial Group (NASD: SIVB) back in 2009, holding through to today.

Start date: 07/09/2009
$10,000

07/09/2009
$85,787

07/08/2019
End date: 07/08/2019
Start price/share: $25.08
End price/share: $215.17
Starting shares: 398.72
Ending shares: 398.72
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 757.93%
Average annual return: 23.97%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $85,787.04

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 23.97%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $85,787.04 today (as of 07/08/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 757.93% (something to think about: how might SIVB 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:
“The whole secret to winning big in the stock market is not to be right all the time, but to lose the least amount possible when you’re wrong.” — William O’Neil