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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

One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a five year holding period for an investor who was considering Ulta Beauty Inc (NASD: ULTA) back in 2014, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 08/25/2014
$10,000

08/25/2014
$34,380

08/22/2019
End date: 08/22/2019
Start price/share: $97.40
End price/share: $334.86
Starting shares: 102.67
Ending shares: 102.67
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 243.80%
Average annual return: 28.05%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $34,380.29

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 28.05%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $34,380.29 today (as of 08/22/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 243.80% (something to think about: how might ULTA 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:
“As time goes on, I get more and more convinced that the right method of investment is to put fairly large sums into enterprises which one thinks one knows something about and in the management of which one thoroughly believes.” — John Maynard Keynes