“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
— Warren Buffett
The above quote from Warren Buffett is timeless, and brings into focus the choice about time horizon that any investor should think about before buying a stock they are considering. Behind every stock is an actual business; what will that business look like over a twenty year period?
Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2001, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Biogen Inc (NASD: BIIB), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a twenty year holding period.
| Start date: | 03/26/2001 |
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| End date: | 03/24/2021 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $39.06 | ||||
| End price/share: | $265.69 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 256.00 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 256.00 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 580.17% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 10.06% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $68,048.46 | ||||
As we can see, the twenty year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 10.06%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $68,048.46 today (as of 03/24/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 580.17% (something to think about: how might BIIB shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
Another great investment quote to think about:
“The older I get, the more I see a straight path where I want to go. If you’re going to hunt elephants, don’t get off the trail for a rabbit.” — T. Boone Pickens
