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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 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 Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASD: AMD), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a five year holding period.

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

03/22/2018
  $87,918

03/21/2023
End date: 03/21/2023
Start price/share: $10.91
End price/share: $95.93
Starting shares: 916.59
Ending shares: 916.59
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 779.29%
Average annual return: 54.46%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $87,918.48

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 54.46%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $87,918.48 today (as of 03/21/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 779.29% (something to think about: how might AMD shares perform over the next 5 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