Stock Calculator

Stock return is the total gain or loss on a stock, usually including dividends, as a percentage of what you invested. If you bought at $100, received $2 in dividends and the stock is now $110, your return is 12%. It's measured over a specific period. A yearly return lets you compare different holding periods fairly.

Total return = (ending price - beginning price + dividends) / beginning price x 100. To convert a multi-year return to a yearly figure, use (ending value / beginning value) ^ (1 / years) - 1. If $10,000 grew to $20,000 in 7 years, the yearly return is about 10.4%. Our calculator shows both.

Over very long periods, the S&P 500 has returned around 10% a year before inflation, including dividends, though that average hides big swings. Some years it has gained more than 30%, and some years it has lost more than 30%. Individual stocks vary much more than the index, and many trail it. Use the calculator to check a specific stock over a specific period.

Many investors compare themselves with a low-cost index fund, since that's the easy alternative. Matching the market over many years is already better than most professional funds achieve. A single stock is riskier, so you'd want more return to justify holding it. Short-term results can be luck, so judge over several years, and include dividends, fees and taxes.

A good return beats a benchmark with the same mix of investments and similar risk. A portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds should be compared with a blend of indexes, not the S&P 500 alone. Calculate your return with deposits and withdrawals in mind, since those distort a simple percentage. Many brokers show a personal rate of return that accounts for them.

In the US, gains are taxed when you sell, not as prices rise. Stocks held for a year or less are taxed at ordinary income rates. Held longer, they get the long-term rates of 0%, 15% or 20%, depending on your income, and a 3.8% surtax may apply at high incomes. Qualified dividends get the lower rates, too. Retirement accounts have different rules.

Most price charts ignore dividends, while our adjusted prices assume you reinvested them. For a company that pays dividends, that difference can be large over decades. We also use month-end prices, so the start and end points can differ from the exact day you're looking at elsewhere. Our figures also leave out fees and taxes, unlike your real account.

A split changes the number of shares and the price per share, not what you own. In a 4-for-1 split, one $200 share becomes four $50 shares, worth the same $200. Historical prices are adjusted so the chart doesn't show a false drop. That's why old prices here can look unfamiliarly low. Adjusted prices keep the return calculation accurate.

Set the Time option to 10 years, enter your amount and pick the stock. Each stock's own page also shows what $10,000 would be worth today after 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years, and up to 50 years for S&P 500 funds, where data allows. Remember that these look back at winners we already know about. Few people could have picked them at the time, and many well-known stocks of the past have lagged.

An index fund gives you broad diversification at a low cost, with no need to pick winners. Individual stocks can beat the market, but they can also lose much more, and research suggests most trail it over long periods. Many people hold mostly funds and, if they want, a small slice of individual stocks. Compare any stock with SPY over the same dates.

No. We save prices once a day, and the historical data uses month-end closes. That's accurate enough for working out long-term returns, and it keeps the site fast. For live quotes before you trade, use your broker. Nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

A dividend is a share of profits paid to shareholders. Market cap is a company's share price times its number of shares. An ETF is a fund that trades like a stock, and a mutual fund is a pooled fund priced once a day. An index fund tracks a market index. Diversification means spreading your money to limit the damage from any single loss.