“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 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 ten year holding period for an investor who was considering Fiserv Inc (NASD: FISV) back in 2009, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
Start date: | 10/02/2009 |
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End date: | 10/01/2019 | ||||
Start price/share: | $11.71 | ||||
End price/share: | $103.15 | ||||
Starting shares: | 853.97 | ||||
Ending shares: | 853.97 | ||||
Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
Total return: | 780.87% | ||||
Average annual return: | 24.30% | ||||
Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
Ending investment: | $88,098.82 |
As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 24.30%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $88,098.82 today (as of 10/01/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 780.87% (something to think about: how might FISV shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
Another great investment quote to think about:
“To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.” — Benjamin Graham