Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

— 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 five year holding period. Suppose such a “buy-and-hold” investor had looked into buying shares of Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM) back in 2016. Let’s take a look at how such an investment would have worked out for that buy-and-hold investor:

Start date: 12/16/2016
$10,000

12/16/2016
$37,229

12/15/2021
End date: 12/15/2021
Start price/share: $69.86
End price/share: $260.04
Starting shares: 143.14
Ending shares: 143.14
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 272.23%
Average annual return: 30.07%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $37,229.37

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 30.07%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $37,229.37 today (as of 12/15/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 272.23% (something to think about: how might CRM shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Calling someone who trades actively in the market an investor is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a romantic.” — Warren Buffett