Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“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: 09/21/2009
$10,000

09/21/2009
$45,797

09/18/2019
End date: 09/18/2019
Start price/share: $38.11
End price/share: $174.52
Starting shares: 262.40
Ending shares: 262.40
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 357.94%
Average annual return: 16.44%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $45,797.40

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 16.44%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $45,797.40 today (as of 09/18/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 357.94% (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 piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“The function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” — John Galbraith