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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 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 IPG Photonics Corp (NASD: IPGP), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a decade-long holding period.

Start date: 10/26/2009
$10,000

10/26/2009
$94,423

10/23/2019
End date: 10/23/2019
Start price/share: $14.50
End price/share: $136.93
Starting shares: 689.66
Ending shares: 689.66
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 844.34%
Average annual return: 25.18%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $94,423.97

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 25.18%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $94,423.97 today (as of 10/23/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 844.34% (something to think about: how might IPGP 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:
“I made my money by selling too soon.” — Bernard Baruch