“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— Warren Buffett
One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a decade-long holding period for an investor who was considering Akamai Technologies Inc (NASD: AKAM) back in 2011, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
| Start date: | 06/23/2011 |
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| End date: | 06/22/2021 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $29.84 | ||||
| End price/share: | $115.98 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 335.12 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 335.12 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 288.67% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 14.53% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $38,861.13 | ||||
As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 14.53%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $38,861.13 today (as of 06/22/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 288.67% (something to think about: how might AKAM shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“He who earns and does not invest will have to work for the rest of his life.” — Debasish Mridha
