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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 Meta Platforms Inc (NASD: META)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2018.

Start date: 03/01/2018
$10,000

03/01/2018
  $9,945

02/28/2023
End date: 02/28/2023
Start price/share: $175.94
End price/share: $174.94
Starting shares: 56.84
Ending shares: 56.84
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -0.57%
Average annual return: -0.11%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $9,945.12

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -0.11%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $9,945.12 today (as of 02/28/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -0.57% (something to think about: how might META shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Nearly every time I strayed from the herd, I’ve made a lot of money. Wandering away from the action is the way to find the new action.” — Jim Rogers