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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 Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a ten year holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASD: WBD)? Today, we examine the outcome of a ten year investment into the stock back in 2014.

Start date: 10/30/2014
$10,000

10/30/2014
  $2,100

10/29/2024
End date: 10/29/2024
Start price/share: $35.94
End price/share: $7.55
Starting shares: 278.24
Ending shares: 278.24
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -78.99%
Average annual return: -14.44%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $2,100.57

As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -14.44%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $2,100.57 today (as of 10/29/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -78.99% (something to think about: how might WBD 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:
“The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.” — Benjamin Graham