“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 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 ten year period?
Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2013, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Meta Platforms Inc (NASD: META), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a ten year holding period.
| Start date: | 12/09/2013 |
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| End date: | 12/07/2023 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $48.84 | ||||
| End price/share: | $326.59 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 204.75 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 204.75 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 568.69% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 20.93% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $66,886.82 | ||||
As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 20.93%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $66,886.82 today (as of 12/07/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 568.69% (something to think about: how might META shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“If you have more than 120 or 130 I.Q. points, you can afford to give the rest away. You don’t need extraordinary intelligence to succeed as an investor.” — Warren Buffett
