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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 decade-long holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASD: UAL)? Today, we examine the outcome of a decade-long investment into the stock back in 2015.

Start date: 07/14/2015
$10,000

07/14/2015
  $15,739

07/11/2025
End date: 07/11/2025
Start price/share: $55.73
End price/share: $87.69
Starting shares: 179.44
Ending shares: 179.44
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 57.35%
Average annual return: 4.64%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $15,739.01

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out as follows, with an annualized rate of return of 4.64%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $15,739.01 today (as of 07/11/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 57.35% (something to think about: how might UAL 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:
“I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.” — Pablo Picasso