“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 Biogen Inc (NASD: BIIB)? Today, we examine the outcome of a ten year investment into the stock back in 2016.
| Start date: | 01/25/2016 |
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| End date: | 01/22/2026 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $262.10 | ||||
| End price/share: | $173.80 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 38.15 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 38.15 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | -33.69% | ||||
| Average annual return: | -4.02% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $6,634.49 | ||||
As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -4.02%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $6,634.49 today (as of 01/22/2026). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -33.69% (something to think about: how might BIIB shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” — George Soros
