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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 Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) back in 2010, holding through to today.

Start date: 12/02/2010
$10,000

12/02/2010
$50,463

12/01/2020
End date: 12/01/2020
Start price/share: $6.67
End price/share: $33.65
Starting shares: 1,499.25
Ending shares: 1,499.25
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 404.50%
Average annual return: 17.56%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $50,463.89

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 17.56%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $50,463.89 today (as of 12/01/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 404.50% (something to think about: how might BSX shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Although it’s easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket… it’s part-ownership of a business.” — Peter Lynch