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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

One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a five year holding period for an investor who was considering Fiserv Inc (NASD: FISV) back in 2018, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 04/11/2018
$10,000

04/11/2018
  $16,046

04/10/2023
End date: 04/10/2023
Start price/share: $70.85
End price/share: $113.71
Starting shares: 141.14
Ending shares: 141.14
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 60.49%
Average annual return: 9.92%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $16,046.62

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 9.92%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $16,046.62 today (as of 04/10/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 60.49% (something to think about: how might FISV shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage.” — Warren Buffett