Total Return Calculator

What would $10,000 be worth today if you had bought a stock or fund 10 years ago? This what if I had invested calculator answers that from real daily prices. Enter a ticker symbol and an amount, then pick a start: 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 years ago, Max for the full history, or any date since Nov 1, 1999.

As a historical investment calculator it also handles regular buying. Add a monthly investment and each month buys more shares on the same day of the month as the start. Set the starting amount to 0 to see a monthly plan on its own.

The results, the chart and the year table update as you change the amounts, the start or the dividends setting. The end is always the latest daily close in GNG, shown in the first row of the results.

Say you put $1,000 into a stock at $100 a share on Jan 2, 2020, so you own 10 shares.

On Jan 6, 2020 it pays a $1.00 dividend while trading at $101. Reinvested, the $10.00 buys 0.10 more shares. On Feb 4, 2020 a 2-for-1 split turns 10.10 shares into 20.20 shares at about half the price.

By Dec 31, 2021, after two more dividends, you own 20.57 shares at $70, worth $1,440, a total return of 43.97% or 20.03% a year. Taking every dividend as cash instead ends with 20 shares and $32.00 in cash, worth $1,432.

Price return counts only the change in the share price. Total return also counts every dividend, which for dividend stocks and funds is often a large part of the gain over 10 or 20 years. This stock return calculator with dividends shows the total return.

With Reinvested picked, each dividend buys more shares at the closing price on its ex-dividend date, so later dividends are paid on more shares. With Taken as cash, dividends build up as cash that earns nothing, and the value adds that cash to the shares. Switch between the two to see what reinvesting added.

A stock split changes the share count on its date, not the value. A 4-for-1 split turns 10 shares into 40 at about a quarter of the price. The starting price in the results is adjusted for every later split, so it lines up with today's price.

Every result runs the same money on the same dates through SPY, an S&P 500 fund used as the benchmark, so you can see how the stock did against the market. Enter SPY as the ticker to use it as an S&P 500 return calculator on its own.

SPY prices in GNG start on Nov 1, 1999, so the comparison covers dates from then on. SPY's total returns include its dividends after its small yearly fee, so they sit just below the S&P 500 index with dividends added.

To compare two funds on fees, returns and dividends side by side, use the ETF comparison tool.

Annualized return, also called CAGR or compound annual growth rate, is the steady yearly rate of return that turns what you put in into what you have at the end. It lets you compare periods of different lengths. For example, $10,000 that grows to $20,000 in 10 years earned about 7.2% a year.

The results show it as Yearly return, so the page also works as an annualized return calculator for any stock or fund. When you add money each month, the yearly return counts when each amount went in, the same way a spreadsheet XIRR does. A period shorter than about a year shows no yearly rate, because stretching a few months into a full year overstates it.

To calculate total return yourself, add any cash dividends to the ending value, subtract what you invested and divide by what you invested. The average annual return, a plain average of each year's return, is usually higher than the annualized return when returns swing from year to year.

• Every buy happens at the closing price on the first trading day on or after its date.
• Dividends count on their ex-dividend dates. Reinvested dividends buy shares at that day's close, and cash dividends earn no interest.
• Splits and spin-offs apply as recorded in GNG's daily price data. GNG does not fill gaps or fix bad prices. A one-day rise of 2x or more, or a drop of 50% or more, after counting recorded splits and dividends, counts as a real move only when GNG's split-adjusted prices show the same move and no split is recorded that day. Any other such day looks like a stock split GNG's price data does not account for, so the calculator shows no result and names the day. A note appears for a very large distribution or a gap of more than two weeks.
• Monthly amounts buy on the same day of each month as the start, or on the next trading day.
• There are no taxes, trading fees or inflation adjustments. A fund's own yearly fee is already in its price.
• Results are hypothetical and use past prices. Past returns do not predict future returns.