“When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”
— Warren Buffett
The wisdom of Warren Buffett reflects a value-based philosophy about investing that says investors are buying shares in a business, and encourages strategic thinking about investment time horizon. Before placing a buy order for a stock, a great question we can ask is whether we would still be comfortable making the investment if we couldn’t sell it for many years?
A “buy-and-hold” approach may call for a time horizon that spans a long period of time — maybe even lasting for a twenty year holding period. Suppose such a “buy-and-hold” investor had looked into buying shares of DaVita Inc (NYSE: DVA) back in 2001. Let’s take a look at how such an investment would have worked out for that buy-and-hold investor:
| Start date: | 12/06/2001 |
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| End date: | 12/03/2021 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $7.71 | ||||
| End price/share: | $98.84 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 1,297.02 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 1,297.02 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 1,181.97% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 13.60% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $128,194.70 | ||||
The above analysis shows the twenty year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 13.60%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $128,194.70 today (as of 12/03/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,181.97% (something to think about: how might DVA shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more investment quote to leave you with:
“The best stock to buy is the one you already own.” — Peter Lynch
DVA
