“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 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 ten year period?
Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2016, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Autodesk Inc (NASD: ADSK), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a ten year holding period.
| Start date: | 01/19/2016 |
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| End date: | 01/15/2026 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $47.59 | ||||
| End price/share: | $262.26 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 210.13 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 210.13 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 451.08% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 18.62% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $55,128.48 | ||||
As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 18.62%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $55,128.48 today (as of 01/15/2026). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 451.08% (something to think about: how might ADSK shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Nearly every time I strayed from the herd, I’ve made a lot of money. Wandering away from the action is the way to find the new action.” — Jim Rogers
