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“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 ABIOMED, Inc. (NASD: ABMD) back in 2002. Let’s take a look at how such an investment would have worked out for that buy-and-hold investor:

Start date: 04/04/2002
$10,000

04/04/2002
$338,358

04/01/2022
End date: 04/01/2022
Start price/share: $10.00
End price/share: $338.64
Starting shares: 1,000.00
Ending shares: 1,000.00
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 3,286.40%
Average annual return: 19.25%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $338,358.61

The above analysis shows the twenty year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 19.25%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $338,358.61 today (as of 04/01/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 3,286.40% (something to think about: how might ABMD shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Another great investment quote to think about:
“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others.” — John Maynard Keynes