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“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 Biogen Inc (NASD: BIIB)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2015.

Start date: 01/15/2015
$10,000

01/15/2015
$8,797

01/14/2020
End date: 01/14/2020
Start price/share: $339.88
End price/share: $298.97
Starting shares: 29.42
Ending shares: 29.42
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -12.04%
Average annual return: -2.53%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $8,797.41

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -2.53%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $8,797.41 today (as of 01/14/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -12.04% (something to think about: how might BIIB 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:
“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep.” — Robert Kiyosaki