“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 United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASD: UAL), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a decade-long holding period.
| Start date: | 06/17/2011 |
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| End date: | 06/16/2021 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $24.04 | ||||
| End price/share: | $55.60 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 415.97 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 415.97 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 131.28% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 8.74% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $23,125.58 | ||||
As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 8.74%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $23,125.58 today (as of 06/16/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 131.28% (something to think about: how might UAL shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more investment quote to leave you with:
“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.” — Oscar Wilde
