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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 Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a decade-long holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into Copart Inc (NASD: CPRT)? Today, we examine the outcome of a decade-long investment into the stock back in 2009.

Start date: 12/28/2009
$10,000

12/28/2009
$98,827

12/24/2019
End date: 12/24/2019
Start price/share: $9.20
End price/share: $90.91
Starting shares: 1,086.96
Ending shares: 1,086.96
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 888.15%
Average annual return: 25.76%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $98,827.96

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 25.76%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $98,827.96 today (as of 12/24/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 888.15% (something to think about: how might CPRT 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:
“Sentimentality about an investments leads to lack of discipline.” — Sam Zell