Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“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 Teledyne Technologies Inc (NYSE: TDY), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a five year holding period.

Start date: 05/10/2016
$10,000

05/10/2016
$45,769

05/07/2021
End date: 05/07/2021
Start price/share: $95.27
End price/share: $435.99
Starting shares: 104.96
Ending shares: 104.96
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 357.64%
Average annual return: 35.60%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $45,769.24

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 35.60%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $45,769.24 today (as of 05/07/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 357.64% (something to think about: how might TDY 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