Stock Profit Calculator

How the profit is calculated

Profit is what you received minus what you paid. What you paid is the shares times the buy price plus the buying commission. What you received is the shares times the sale price minus the selling commission, plus any dividends you collected while you held. On the default trade, 100 shares bought at $50 and sold at $65 with $5 of fees each way and $1.20 of dividends per share, that is $6,495 plus $120 minus $5,005, or $1,610.

The return is that profit divided by what you paid: 32.2%. Fees are included in the cost, so the percentage is the return on the money that actually left your account.

Total return against return per year

A 32% gain means very different things over one year and over ten. The annual figure compounds the total over the holding period, which makes trades of different lengths comparable with each other and with an index fund.

Over two years the default trade works out to 15.0% a year. The same 32.2% earned over ten years would be 2.8% a year, less than many savings accounts have paid.

The break-even price

The break-even price is the sale price at which you neither gain nor lose after fees and dividends. In the default example it is $48.90, below the $50 you paid, because the $120 of dividends more than covered the $10 of fees.

It is a useful number to know while you still hold the position. It tells you how far the price can fall before the trade is a loss, which is often further than the purchase price suggests for a dividend payer and less far than it suggests for a small trade with high fees.

Why losses need larger gains to recover

A fall and the rise needed to undo it are not the same size, because the rise starts from a smaller base. A 50% loss needs a 100% gain to get back to even. This is the main reason position size and risk control matter more than picking winners.

When fees matter

On a large trade a flat fee is noise. On a small one it is not: $5 to buy and $5 to sell is 2% of a $500 position, so the shares have to rise 2% before you make anything. At $25,000 the same fees are 0.04%.

Many brokers now charge nothing for US shares, but foreign shares, currency conversion and some account types still carry costs. Enter them, because a calculator that leaves them out will always flatter the result.

Common questions

How do I calculate profit on a stock?

Multiply the shares by the sale price, subtract the selling fee, add any dividends received, then subtract what you paid including the buying fee. The calculator does this and shows the return and the annual rate alongside.

How do I calculate the percentage return?

Divide the profit by the total cost of the purchase, fees included, and multiply by 100. A $1,610 profit on $5,005 is a 32.2% return.

How is the annual return calculated?

It is the compound annual growth rate: the total growth raised to the power of one over the years held, minus one. A 32.2% gain over two years is 15.0% a year, not 16.1%, because each year's gain builds on the previous one.

I bought in several lots. What price do I enter?

Your average cost: the total amount paid for all the lots divided by the total number of shares. Enter the combined fees in the buy fee field.

Does this include tax?

No. Capital gains tax depends on your country, the type of account and often on how long you held the shares. The profit shown is before tax.

Should dividends count towards the profit?

Yes, if you are asking how well the investment did. Leaving them out understates the return of every dividend payer, sometimes by a lot over a long holding period. Set dividends to zero if you only want the price gain.