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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 Mylan NV (NASD: MYL)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2015.

Start date: 05/15/2015
$10,000

05/15/2015
$2,153

05/14/2020
End date: 05/14/2020
Start price/share: $70.67
End price/share: $15.22
Starting shares: 141.50
Ending shares: 141.50
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -78.46%
Average annual return: -26.43%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $2,153.47

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -26.43%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $2,153.47 today (as of 05/14/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -78.46% (something to think about: how might MYL shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“The right time for a company to finance its growth is not when it needs capital, but rather when the market is most receptive to providing capital.” — Michael Milken