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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

One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a ten year holding period for an investor who was considering Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (NYSE: CRL) back in 2014, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 08/08/2014
$10,000

08/08/2014
  $35,221

08/07/2024
End date: 08/07/2024
Start price/share: $56.79
End price/share: $199.96
Starting shares: 176.09
Ending shares: 176.09
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 252.10%
Average annual return: 13.41%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $35,221.91

As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 13.41%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $35,221.91 today (as of 08/07/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 252.10% (something to think about: how might CRL shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“There’s a virtuous cycle when people have to defend challenges to their ideas. Any gaps in thinking or analysis become clear pretty quickly when smart people ask good, logical questions.” — Joel Greenblatt