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

— Warren Buffett

The Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a five year holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASD: UAL)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2017.

Start date: 11/30/2017
$10,000

11/30/2017
  $6,900

11/29/2022
End date: 11/29/2022
Start price/share: $63.32
End price/share: $43.69
Starting shares: 157.93
Ending shares: 157.93
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -31.00%
Average annual return: -7.15%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $6,900.96

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -7.15%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $6,900.96 today (as of 11/29/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -31.00% (something to think about: how might UAL 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:
“There’s a virtuous cycle when people have to defend challenges to their ideas. Any gaps in thinking or analysis become clear pretty quickly when smart people ask good, logical questions.” — Joel Greenblatt