“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five 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 five year holding period for an investor who was considering Micron Technology Inc. (NASD: MU) back in 2016, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
Start date: | 08/03/2016 |
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End date: | 08/02/2021 | ||||
Start price/share: | $13.51 | ||||
End price/share: | $77.64 | ||||
Starting shares: | 740.19 | ||||
Ending shares: | 740.19 | ||||
Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
Total return: | 474.69% | ||||
Average annual return: | 41.87% | ||||
Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
Ending investment: | $57,471.54 |
As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 41.87%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $57,471.54 today (as of 08/02/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 474.69% (something to think about: how might MU shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.” — Benjamin Graham
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