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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 Biogen Inc (NASD: BIIB)? Today, we examine the outcome of a decade-long investment into the stock back in 2014.

Start date: 09/11/2014
$10,000

09/11/2014
  $6,132

09/10/2024
End date: 09/10/2024
Start price/share: $327.11
End price/share: $200.64
Starting shares: 30.57
Ending shares: 30.57
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: -38.66%
Average annual return: -4.77%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $6,132.27

The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out poorly, with an annualized rate of return of -4.77%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $6,132.27 today (as of 09/10/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of -38.66% (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.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.” — Donald Trump