“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”
— 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 five year period?
Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2016, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about F5 Networks, Inc. (NASD: FFIV), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a five year holding period.
| Start date: | 04/06/2016 |
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| End date: | 04/05/2021 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $103.89 | ||||
| End price/share: | $215.28 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 96.26 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 96.26 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 107.22% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 15.69% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $20,724.26 | ||||
As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 15.69%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $20,724.26 today (as of 04/05/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 107.22% (something to think about: how might FFIV shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more investment quote to leave you with:
“You can’t restate a dividend.” — Malon Wilkus
