Stryker At All Time Highs

One of our portfolio shares traded at an all-time high yesterday - medical device maker Stryker. We added them to our recommended portfolio in late January 2014. The chart below shows what they have done since then.

We bought them at $78.43 and they are now at $291.13. That's a 272% gain over 9.2 years, or a compound annual gain of about 15.4%.

It's worth noting that to get that return you had to hold the stock through some rough patches. It fell by 44% during the Covid period, as elective surgeries were suspended. Then it recovered. Then it fell again by 29% in the middle of 2022 because the whole market did badly, and growth stocks did worse.

I should also point out that Stryker has paid out $18.58 per share in dividends since January 2014. That juices up the overall return considerably.

This example shows just how important it is to be a patient holder of long-term winners. Buy and hold quality shares in growing industries, that's the way to go.