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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 ten year 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 Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASD: AMD), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a ten year holding period.

Start date: 10/26/2011
$10,000

10/26/2011
$239,878

10/25/2021
End date: 10/25/2021
Start price/share: $5.10
End price/share: $122.36
Starting shares: 1,960.78
Ending shares: 1,960.78
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 2,299.22%
Average annual return: 37.38%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $239,878.25

As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 37.38%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $239,878.25 today (as of 10/25/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 2,299.22% (something to think about: how might AMD shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“The investor’s chief problem, even his worst enemy, is likely to be himself.” — Benjamin Graham