Stock Return Calculator
Calculate your total stock return percentage and annualized return from buy price, sell price, shares held, and dividends received.
Stock return measures how much money you made (or lost) on a stock investment, including both the change in share price and any dividends received.
Total return formulas:
Total Cost = Buy Price × Shares
Total Gain = (Sell Price - Buy Price) × Shares + Dividends
Total Return (%) = (Total Gain / Total Cost) × 100
What the variables mean:
- Buy Price — the price per share when you purchased the stock
- Sell Price — the price per share when you sold (or the current price if still holding)
- Shares — the number of shares you own
- Dividends — total cash dividends received over the holding period
- Holding Period — how many years you held the investment
Annualized return adjusts the total return to a per-year basis, making it easy to compare investments held for different lengths of time:
Annualized Return (%) = ((Ending Value / Beginning Value) ^ (1 / Years) - 1) × 100
Where Ending Value = (Sell Price × Shares) + Dividends and Beginning Value = Buy Price × Shares.
Practical example: You bought 100 shares at $50 ($5,000 total), sold at $75, and received $200 in dividends over 3 years. Total gain = ($75 - $50) × 100 + $200 = $2,700. Total return = 54%. Annualized return = ((7,700 / 5,000) ^ (1/3) - 1) × 100 = 15.5% per year.
Tips: Always include dividends in your return calculation, as they can represent a significant portion of total return. The S&P 500 has historically returned about 10% annually (including dividends) over long periods. Annualized return is the best metric for comparing different investments because it normalizes for time.