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“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 decade-long period?

Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2014, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Autodesk Inc (NASD: ADSK), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a decade-long holding period.

Start date: 05/09/2014
$10,000

05/09/2014
  $45,658

05/08/2024
End date: 05/08/2024
Start price/share: $46.85
End price/share: $213.95
Starting shares: 213.45
Ending shares: 213.45
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 356.67%
Average annual return: 16.39%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $45,658.10

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 16.39%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $45,658.10 today (as of 05/08/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 356.67% (something to think about: how might ADSK shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“The greater the passive income you can build, the freer you will become.” — Todd Fleming