“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— Warren Buffett
The investment philosophy practiced by Warren Buffett calls for investors to take a long-term horizon when making an investment, such as a decade-long holding period (or even longer), and reconsider making the investment in the first place if unable to envision holding the stock for at least five years. Today, we look at how such a long-term strategy would have done for investors in Netflix Inc (NASD: NFLX) back in 2010, holding through to today.
| Start date: | 09/30/2010 |
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| End date: | 09/29/2020 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $23.17 | ||||
| End price/share: | $493.48 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 431.59 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 431.59 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 2,029.82% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 35.76% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $213,032.47 | ||||
As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 35.76%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $213,032.47 today (as of 09/29/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 2,029.82% (something to think about: how might NFLX shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
Another great investment quote to think about:
“The older I get, the more I see a straight path where I want to go. If you’re going to hunt elephants, don’t get off the trail for a rabbit.” — T. Boone Pickens
