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

Investors can learn a lot from Warren Buffett, whose above quote teaches the importance of thinking about investment time horizon, and asking ourselves before buying any given stock: can we envision holding onto it for years — even a five year holding period possibly?

Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Generac Holdings Inc (NYSE: GNRC) back in 2017: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full five year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 5 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.

Start date: 02/10/2017
$10,000

02/10/2017
$69,769

02/09/2022
End date: 02/09/2022
Start price/share: $42.21
End price/share: $294.48
Starting shares: 236.91
Ending shares: 236.91
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 597.65%
Average annual return: 47.48%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $69,769.51

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 47.48%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $69,769.51 today (as of 02/09/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 597.65% (something to think about: how might GNRC shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“Confronted with a challenge to distill the secret of sound investment into three words, we venture the motto, Margin of Safety.” — Benjamin Graham