“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— Warren Buffett
A critical pearl of wisdom from Warren Buffett teaches us that with any potential stock investment we may make, as soon as our buy order is filled we will have a choice: to remain a co-owner of that company for the long haul, or to react to the inevitable short-term ups and downs that the stock market is famous for (sometimes sharp ups and downs).
The reality of this choice forces us to challenge our confidence in any given company we might invest into, and keep our eyes on the long-term time horizon. The market may go up and down the interim, but over a ten year holding period, will the investment succeed?
Back in 2014, investors may have been asking themselves that very question about Best Buy Inc (NYSE: BBY). Let’s examine what would have happened over a ten year holding period, had you invested in BBY shares back in 2014 and held on.
| Start date: | 08/07/2014 |
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| End date: | 08/06/2024 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $29.03 | ||||
| End price/share: | $82.00 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 344.47 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 485.18 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $22.62 | ||||
| Total return: | 297.85% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 14.80% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $39,787.56 | ||||
The above analysis shows the ten year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 14.80%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $39,787.56 today (as of 08/06/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 297.85% (something to think about: how might BBY shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
Beyond share price change, another component of BBY’s total return these past 10 years has been the payment by Best Buy Inc of $22.62/share in dividends to shareholders. Automatic reinvestment of dividends can be a wonderful way to compound returns, and for the above calculations we presume that dividends are reinvested into additional shares of stock. (For the purpose of these calcuations, the closing price on ex-date is used).
Based upon the most recent annualized dividend rate of 3.76/share, we calculate that BBY has a current yield of approximately 4.59%. Another interesting datapoint we can examine is ‘yield on cost’ — in other words, we can express the current annualized dividend of 3.76 against the original $29.03/share purchase price. This works out to a yield on cost of 15.81%.
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“If you can follow only one bit of data, follow the earnings.” — Peter Lynch
