“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”
— Warren Buffett
One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a five year holding period for an investor who was considering Merck & Co Inc (NYSE: MRK) back in 2015, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
| Start date: | 03/27/2015 |
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| End date: | 03/26/2020 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $57.75 | ||||
| End price/share: | $73.53 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 173.16 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 201.64 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $9.96 | ||||
| Total return: | 48.27% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 8.19% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $14,826.18 | ||||
As shown above, the five year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 8.19%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $14,826.18 today (as of 03/26/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 48.27% (something to think about: how might MRK shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
Dividends are always an important investment factor to consider, and Merck & Co Inc has paid $9.96/share in dividends to shareholders over the past 5 years we looked at above. Many an investor will only invest in stocks that pay dividends, so this component of total return is always an important consideration. Automated reinvestment of dividends into additional shares of stock can be a great way for an investor to compound their returns. The above calculations are done with the assuption that dividends received over time are reinvested (the calcuations use the closing price on ex-date).
Based upon the most recent annualized dividend rate of 2.44/share, we calculate that MRK has a current yield of approximately 3.32%. Another interesting datapoint we can examine is ‘yield on cost’ — in other words, we can express the current annualized dividend of 2.44 against the original $57.75/share purchase price. This works out to a yield on cost of 5.75%.
Another great investment quote to think about:
“In trading you have to be defensive and aggressive at the same time. If you are not aggressive, you are not going to make money, and if you are not defensive, you are not going to keep money.” — Ray Dalio
