“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 2018, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Charter Communications Inc (NASD: CHTR), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a five year holding period.
| Start date: | 11/09/2018 |
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| End date: | 11/08/2023 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $321.11 | ||||
| End price/share: | $413.48 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 31.14 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 31.14 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 28.77% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 5.19% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $12,878.71 | ||||
As we can see, the five year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 5.19%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $12,878.71 today (as of 11/08/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 28.77% (something to think about: how might CHTR shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“We ignore outlooks and forecasts… we’re lousy at it and we admit it … everyone else is lousy too, but most people won’t admit it.” — Martin Whitman
