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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 Akamai Technologies Inc (NASD: AKAM)? Today, we examine the outcome of a decade-long investment into the stock back in 2015.

Start date: 11/19/2015
$10,000

11/19/2015
  $14,819

11/18/2025
End date: 11/18/2025
Start price/share: $59.21
End price/share: $87.74
Starting shares: 168.89
Ending shares: 168.89
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 48.18%
Average annual return: 4.01%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $14,819.87

The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out as follows, with an annualized rate of return of 4.01%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $14,819.87 today (as of 11/18/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 48.18% (something to think about: how might AKAM 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:
“A 10% decline in the market is fairly common, it happens about once a year. Investors who realize this are less likely to sell in a panic, and more likely to remain invested, benefitting from the wealthbuilding power of stocks.” — Christopher Davis