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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 investment philosophy practiced by Warren Buffett calls for investors to take a long-term horizon when making an investment, such as a decade-long holding period (or even longer), and reconsider making the investment in the first place if unable to envision holding the stock for at least five years. Today, we look at how such a long-term strategy would have done for investors in Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM) back in 2010, holding through to today.

Start date: 05/10/2010
$10,000

05/10/2010
$79,517

05/07/2020
End date: 05/07/2020
Start price/share: $21.37
End price/share: $169.90
Starting shares: 467.95
Ending shares: 467.95
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 695.04%
Average annual return: 23.04%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $79,517.59

The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 23.04%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $79,517.59 today (as of 05/07/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 695.04% (something to think about: how might CRM shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“Taking risks is really the only way to consistently achieve above-average returns.” — Sam Zell