“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: | 04/19/2016 |
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| End date: | 04/16/2021 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $271.00 | ||||
| End price/share: | $270.31 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 36.90 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 36.90 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | -0.25% | ||||
| Average annual return: | -0.05% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $9,975.05 | ||||
As shown above, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -0.05%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $9,975.05 today (as of 04/16/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -0.25% (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
