Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”

— Warren Buffett

Investors can learn a lot from Warren Buffett, whose above quote teaches the importance of thinking about investment time horizon, and asking ourselves before buying any given stock: can we envision holding onto it for years — even a twenty year holding period possibly?

Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASD: TTWO) back in 2004: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full twenty year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 20 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.

Start date: 08/27/2004
$10,000

08/27/2004
  $72,156

08/26/2024
End date: 08/26/2024
Start price/share: $22.23
End price/share: $160.38
Starting shares: 449.84
Ending shares: 449.87
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 621.50%
Average annual return: 10.38%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $72,156.89

As we can see, the twenty year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 10.38%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $72,156.89 today (as of 08/26/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 621.50% (something to think about: how might TTWO shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“While it might seem that anyone can be a value investor, the essential characteristics of this type of investor-patience, discipline, and risk aversion-may well be genetically determined.” — Seth Klarman