Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

— Warren Buffett

The above quote from Warren Buffett is timeless, and brings into focus the choice about time horizon that any investor should think about before buying a stock they are considering. Behind every stock is an actual business; what will that business look like over a five year period?

Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2020, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a five year holding period.

Start date: 05/06/2020
$10,000

05/06/2020
  $16,835

05/05/2025
End date: 05/05/2025
Start price/share: $326.36
End price/share: $549.34
Starting shares: 30.64
Ending shares: 30.64
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 68.32%
Average annual return: 10.98%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $16,835.41

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 10.98%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $16,835.41 today (as of 05/05/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 68.32% (something to think about: how might TYL shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“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