“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”
— Warren Buffett
The above quote from Warren Buffett is timeless, and brings into focus the choice about time horizon that any investor should think about before buying a stock they are considering. Behind every stock is an actual business; what will that business look like over a five year period?
Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2017, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Trimble Inc (NASD: TRMB), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a five year holding period.
| Start date: | 11/16/2017 |
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| End date: | 11/15/2022 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $41.53 | ||||
| End price/share: | $59.83 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 240.79 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 240.79 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 44.06% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 7.58% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $14,409.79 | ||||
As shown above, the five year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 7.58%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $14,409.79 today (as of 11/15/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 44.06% (something to think about: how might TRMB shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“I think you have to learn that there’s a company behind every stock, and that there’s only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.” — Peter Lynch
