Investment Return Calculator
Calculate capital gains, dividend distributions, total percentage return, and annualized CAGR across any stock, ETF, or fund holding period.
Total Return & CAGR Formulas
Total Profit = (Ending Value − Initial Investment) + Dividends | Total Return % = (Total Profit / Initial Investment) × 100 | Annualized Return (CAGR) = ((Ending + Dividends) / Initial)^(1/Years) − 1- Capital Gain: Asset price appreciation between purchase and sale.
- Dividends & Distributions: Cash dividends received during the ownership period.
- CAGR: Compound Annual Growth Rate smoothing multi-year returns into an annualized rate.
Step-by-Step Worked Example
Calculation Steps:
How to Use This Calculator
Assumptions & Limitations
- Past performance and historical annualized returns are illustrative and do not guarantee future investment results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is annualized return more useful than total return?
A 50% total return sounds great, but achieving 50% in 2 years (22.5% CAGR) is vastly superior to achieving 50% over 15 years (2.7% CAGR). Annualizing standardizes returns for direct comparison.
Related Cost Calculators
Investment Growth Calculator
Forecast multi-decade portfolio growth with monthly dollar additions, comparing nominal future value against inflation-adjusted real purchasing power.
ROI Calculator
Calculate Return on Investment (ROI), net dollar profit, and cost-benefit ratios for business ventures, education, real estate, and capital expenditures.
Annualized Return Calculator
Convert multi-year cumulative gains into an annualized Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) and calculate your asset doubling time via the Rule of 72.
Dollar Cost Averaging Calculator
Simulate disciplined Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) across bull, bear, and volatile market cycles to calculate average share purchase costs.