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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: 09/10/2018
$10,000

09/10/2018
  $35,659

09/07/2023
End date: 09/07/2023
Start price/share: $29.89
End price/share: $106.59
Starting shares: 334.56
Ending shares: 334.56
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 256.61%
Average annual return: 28.99%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $35,659.43

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 28.99%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $35,659.43 today (as of 09/07/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 256.61% (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.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“You can get in much more trouble with a good idea than a bad idea, because you forget that the good idea has limits.” — Benjamin Graham