Investment & Personal Finance

Stock Total Return

Price appreciation plus dividends received

What is Stock Total Return?

Stock Total Return measures the complete return on a stock investment including both price appreciation and dividends received. It is the correct way to compare equity returns to fixed income (which includes coupon income) and to evaluate a portfolio manager's performance. Price return alone understates total return for dividend-paying stocks, significantly so for long holding periods. The S&P 500 price return over 30 years is roughly half the total return index (which reinvests dividends). This calculator computes total return for a given purchase price, sale price, dividends received, and holding period, and optionally annualises it as a CAGR.

Formula

Total Return = (End Price − Begin Price + Dividends) / Begin Price × 100%

Annualised (CAGR) = (1 + Total Return)^(1/Years) − 1

Calculator

Purchase Price ($)Current / Sale Price ($)Total Dividends Received ($)Holding Period (years)

How to Use

1
Enter purchase price: The price per share at which you bought.
2
Enter current or sale price: The price per share at the end of the measurement period.
3
Enter total dividends received: Sum of all dividends per share received during the holding period.
4
Enter holding period: For annualised CAGR: the number of years held.

Worked Example

Example: 5-year hold

Buy Price

$100

Sell Price

$145

Dividends

$12

Years

Total Return = (145 − 100 + 12) / 100 = 57%. Annualised CAGR = (1.57)^(1/5) − 1 = 9.46%. Price return alone was 45%; dividends added 12 percentage points (12 ÷ 100), and 21% of the total gain came from income. This is why total return matters: price-only return understated performance by 26.7% in this example.