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 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 United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASD: UAL)? Today, we examine the outcome of a five year investment into the stock back in 2018.

Start date: 05/03/2018
$10,000

05/03/2018
  $6,594

05/02/2023
End date: 05/02/2023
Start price/share: $67.52
End price/share: $44.53
Starting shares: 148.10
Ending shares: 148.10
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -34.05%
Average annual return: -7.99%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $6,594.40

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -7.99%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $6,594.40 today (as of 05/02/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -34.05% (something to think about: how might UAL 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:
“A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments. You need to keep raw, irrational emotion under control.” — Charlie Munger