Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

— Warren Buffett

The Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a five year holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into Mylan NV (NASD: MYL)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2014.

Start date: 10/17/2014
$10,000

10/17/2014
$3,789

10/16/2019
End date: 10/16/2019
Start price/share: $49.46
End price/share: $18.74
Starting shares: 202.18
Ending shares: 202.18
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -62.11%
Average annual return: -17.64%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $3,789.50

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -17.64%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $3,789.50 today (as of 10/16/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -62.11% (something to think about: how might MYL 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:
“There is nothing riskier than the widespread perception that there is no risk.” — Howard Marks