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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

Such a great quote from Warren Buffett, highlighting the importance of investment time horizon when considering making an investment. In the short run, who knows what the stock market will do? A week or two after buying any given stock, could the entire stock market fall out of bed? Quite possibly! Should that happen, how would you react? It is an excellent question to think about before hitting the buy button.

For investors who take a multi-year time horizon, the important thing is not what happens in the next week or two, but what the result will be over the long haul. Today, we look at the result investors of the year 2016 experienced, who considered an investment in shares of Amazon.com Inc (NASD: AMZN) and decided upon a five year investment time horizon.

AMZN 5-Year Return Details
Start date: 04/26/2016
$10,000

04/26/2016		 $54,163

04/23/2021
End date: 04/23/2021
Start price/share: $616.88
End price/share: $3,340.88
Starting shares: 16.21
Ending shares: 16.21
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 441.58%
Average annual return: 40.25%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $54,163.83

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 40.25%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $54,163.83 today (as of 04/23/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 441.58% (something to think about: how might AMZN shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage.” — Warren Buffett