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“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 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 decade-long period?

Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2011, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Charter Communications Inc (NASD: CHTR), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a decade-long holding period.

Start date: 06/22/2011
$10,000

06/22/2011
$121,588

06/21/2021
End date: 06/21/2021
Start price/share: $57.14
End price/share: $694.81
Starting shares: 175.01
Ending shares: 175.01
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 1,115.98%
Average annual return: 28.36%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $121,588.14

The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 28.36%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $121,588.14 today (as of 06/21/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,115.98% (something to think about: how might CHTR shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.” — John Maynard Keynes