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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 Axon Enterprise Inc (NASD: AXON) back in 2015, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 07/16/2015
$10,000

07/16/2015
  $216,990

07/15/2025
End date: 07/15/2025
Start price/share: $34.37
End price/share: $745.87
Starting shares: 290.95
Ending shares: 290.95
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 2,070.12%
Average annual return: 36.01%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $216,990.29

As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 36.01%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $216,990.29 today (as of 07/15/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 2,070.12% (something to think about: how might AXON 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:
“Value investing is at its core the marriage of a contrarian streak and a calculator.” — Seth Klarman