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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 Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a decade-long holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS)? Today, we examine the outcome of a decade-long investment into the stock back in 2010.

Start date: 08/05/2010
$10,000

08/05/2010
$5,726

08/04/2020
End date: 08/04/2020
Start price/share: $49.00
End price/share: $19.65
Starting shares: 204.08
Ending shares: 291.54
Dividends reinvested/share: $17.06
Total return: -42.71%
Average annual return: -5.42%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $5,726.12

The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -5.42%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $5,726.12 today (as of 08/04/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -42.71% (something to think about: how might KSS shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Dividends are always an important investment factor to consider, and Kohl’s Corp. has paid $17.06/share in dividends to shareholders over the past 10 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 2.816/share, we calculate that KSS has a current yield of approximately 14.33%. Another interesting datapoint we can examine is ‘yield on cost’ — in other words, we can express the current annualized dividend of 2.816 against the original $49.00/share purchase price. This works out to a yield on cost of 29.24%.

Another great investment quote to think about:
“Calling someone who trades actively in the market an investor is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a romantic.” — Warren Buffett