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 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 2018, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Autodesk Inc (NASD: ADSK), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a five year holding period.

Start date: 03/22/2018
$10,000

03/22/2018
  $15,763

03/21/2023
End date: 03/21/2023
Start price/share: $131.41
End price/share: $207.15
Starting shares: 76.10
Ending shares: 76.10
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 57.64%
Average annual return: 9.53%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $15,763.96

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 9.53%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $15,763.96 today (as of 03/21/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 57.64% (something to think about: how might ADSK shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“People who succeed in the stock market also accept periodic losses, setbacks, and unexpected occurrences. Calamitous drops do not scare them out of the game.” — Peter Lynch