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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

Investors can learn a lot from Warren Buffett, whose above quote teaches the importance of thinking about investment time horizon, and asking ourselves before buying any given stock: can we envision holding onto it for years — even a decade-long holding period possibly?

Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Incyte Corporation (NASD: INCY) back in 2010: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full decade-long investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.

Start date: 10/19/2010
$10,000

10/19/2010
$53,412

10/16/2020
End date: 10/16/2020
Start price/share: $16.97
End price/share: $90.63
Starting shares: 589.28
Ending shares: 589.28
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 434.06%
Average annual return: 18.24%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $53,412.66

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 18.24%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $53,412.66 today (as of 10/16/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 434.06% (something to think about: how might INCY shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“I make no attempt to forecast the market; my efforts are devoted to finding undervalued securities.” — Warren Buffett