“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”
— Warren Buffett
This inspiring quote from Warren Buffett teaches us the importance of considering our investment time horizon when approaching any given investment: Could we envision ourselves holding the stock we are considering for many years? Even a five year holding period potentially?
For “buy-and-hold” investors taking a long-term view, what’s important isn’t the short-term stock market fluctuations that will inevitably occur, but what happens over the long haul. Looking back 5 years to 2019, investors considering an investment into shares of Keysight Technologies Inc (NYSE: KEYS) may have been pondering this very question and thinking about their potential investment result over a full five year time horizon. Here’s how that would have worked out.
| Start date: | 11/01/2019 |
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| End date: | 10/31/2024 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $101.90 | ||||
| End price/share: | $149.01 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 98.14 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 98.14 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 46.23% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 7.89% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $14,621.65 | ||||
As shown above, the five year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 7.89%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $14,621.65 today (as of 10/31/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 46.23% (something to think about: how might KEYS shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
Another great investment quote to think about:
“I think you have to learn that there’s a company behind every stock, and that there’s only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.” — Peter Lynch
