Stock Total Return Calculator
Work out the true return on a stock holding — capital gain plus dividends, net of trading fees — including total profit, total return and an annualized figure.
How it works
Your cost is what you paid: buy price × shares, plus any buy fee. Your proceeds are what you got back: sell price × shares, minus any sell fee. Total profit adds the dividends you received on top of the capital gain, so it reflects the full economics of the trade rather than the share price alone.
Total return is total profit divided by cost. Price return isolates the pure share-price move (it ignores fees and dividends), and dividend contribution shows how much of your cost the dividends paid back. The annualized return scales total return to a year using simple 365-day scaling (no compounding): total_return × 365 / days.
Worked example
Buy 100 shares at $100 (cost $10,000), sell at $110 (proceeds $11,000), collect $200 in dividends over 365 days, no fees:
- Price gain = (110 − 100) × 100 = $1,000.
- Total profit = 11,000 − 10,000 + 200 = $1,200; ending value = 11,000 + 200 = $11,200.
- Price return = 1,000 / 10,000 = 10%; total return = 1,200 / 10,000 = 12%.
- Dividend contribution = 200 / 10,000 = 2%; annualized = 12% × 365/365 = 12%.
The formula
cost = buy_price × shares + buy_fee proceeds = sell_price × shares − sell_fee price_gain = (sell_price − buy_price) × shares total_profit = proceeds − cost + dividends_received ending_value = proceeds + dividends_received price_return = price_gain / (buy_price × shares) total_return = total_profit / cost dividend_contribution = dividends_received / cost annualized_return = total_return × 365 / holding_period_days
FAQ
- Does this include dividends?
- Yes — dividends received are added to your capital gain, so total return and total profit reflect both. Price return shows the share-price move on its own.
- How is the annualized return calculated?
- Simple 365-day scaling, not compounding: total return × 365 ÷ holding-period days. A 6% return over 73 days annualizes to about 30%.
- Do trading fees affect the result?
- Buy and sell fees reduce total profit and total return (they raise your cost and cut your proceeds), but price return uses the gross price move and ignores fees.