“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 2010, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Charter Communications Inc (NASD: CHTR), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a decade-long holding period.
| Start date: | 01/06/2010 |
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| End date: | 12/31/2019 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $35.00 | ||||
| End price/share: | $485.08 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 285.71 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 285.71 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 1,285.94% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 30.11% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $138,628.99 | ||||
The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 30.11%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $138,628.99 today (as of 12/31/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,285.94% (something to think about: how might CHTR shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more investment quote to leave you with:
“Value investing is at its core the marriage of a contrarian streak and a calculator.” — Seth Klarman
