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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 Biogen Inc (NASD: BIIB)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2016.

Start date: 02/08/2016
$10,000

02/08/2016
$10,572

02/05/2021
End date: 02/05/2021
Start price/share: $250.77
End price/share: $265.09
Starting shares: 39.88
Ending shares: 39.88
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 5.71%
Average annual return: 1.12%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $10,572.36

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out as follows, with an annualized rate of return of 1.12%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $10,572.36 today (as of 02/05/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 5.71% (something to think about: how might BIIB shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“Confronted with a challenge to distill the secret of sound investment into three words, we venture the motto, Margin of Safety.” — Benjamin Graham