Investment Return Calculator
Calculate the profit and percentage return on a stock or fund trade from the shares, buy and sell prices, trading fees, and dividends received.
Cómo usar esta calculadora
- 1Enter the number of shares and the price you bought them at.
- 2Enter the price you sold (or would sell) them at.
- 3Add the buy and sell fees and any dividends you received.
- 4Read the net profit and total percentage return.
Cómo funciona
Investment return
cost = shares × buy price + buy fee proceeds = shares × sell price − sell fee net profit = proceeds + dividends − cost return % = net profit ÷ cost × 100
The return on an investment measures how much you made relative to what you put in, and doing it properly means counting every cash flow. The total cost is what you paid for the shares plus any commission to buy them. The proceeds are what you received when selling, after deducting the selling fee. Adding any dividends received while you held the shares, and subtracting the total cost, gives the net profit. Dividing that profit by the cost and expressing it as a percentage gives the total return. This full accounting matters because the headline change in share price — the capital gain — is only part of the story. Dividends add to the return, while trading fees subtract from it, and ignoring either gives a misleadingly rosy or incomplete picture. The result is a pre-tax total return; taxes on the gain further reduce the amount you keep.
Ejemplo resuelto
Buying 100 shares at $50 costs $5,000 plus a $10 fee, or $5,010. Selling at $65 brings in $6,500 less a $10 fee, or $6,490. With no dividends, the net profit is $6,490 − $5,010 = $1,480, a total return of 1,480 ÷ 5,010 ≈ 29.5% — slightly below the 30% the price rise alone suggests, because of the fees.
Investment Return Calculator: la guía completa
Total return, not just price change
The most common way investors think about a stock's performance is the change in its price — bought at $50, sold at $65, up 30%. But that capital gain is only one component of the true return, and focusing on it alone can mislead. The complete measure, total return, adds in the dividends received while holding the shares and subtracts the costs of trading. For a dividend-paying stock held over time, dividends can make up a substantial share of the return, so ignoring them understates how well the investment did.
Total return is the honest number because it reflects the actual cash that flowed in and out. An investor who bought a stock that barely moved in price but paid steady dividends may have done better than one who bought a flashier stock that rose and fell but paid nothing. Comparing investments by price change alone systematically favours growth stocks and penalises income-producing ones unfairly. Whenever you evaluate how an investment performed, the total return — capital gain plus income, net of costs — is the figure that captures the whole picture.
How fees erode returns
Trading fees seem trivial next to the sums invested, but they take a real and often underappreciated bite out of returns, especially on smaller trades and for active traders. A $10 commission to buy and another to sell is $20 out of the profit on every round trip. On a $5,000 investment that turns a 30% price gain into a 29.5% total return — a small dent. But on a $500 trade, that same $20 is 4% of the investment, enough to turn a small gain into a loss. This is why the rise of commission-free trading was such a significant change for small investors.
Beyond explicit commissions, other costs quietly reduce returns: the bid-ask spread paid on every trade, ongoing expense ratios on funds, and account fees. For frequent traders, these accumulate relentlessly, which is a large part of why active trading so often underperforms simply buying and holding. Each trade must overcome its own costs just to break even before it can make a profit. Accounting for fees, as this calculator does, reveals the true return after the friction of trading — a friction that compounds against you the more you trade.
Return, time, and taxes
A percentage return is only half the story of an investment's quality; the other half is how long it took to earn. A 30% return is excellent over one year and mediocre over ten. This is why the total return from this calculator is best paired with the time held to compute an annualised return, or CAGR, which puts investments of different durations on a comparable footing. A quick 20% gain in six months represents a far higher annual rate than a 20% gain over three years, even though the raw percentage is identical.
Taxes are the final reality that separates the return you earn from the return you keep. The net profit here is pre-tax; when you sell at a gain, that profit is generally subject to capital gains tax, and the rate often depends on how long you held the investment — many tax systems tax short-term gains more heavily than long-term ones, specifically to reward patient investing. Dividends may be taxed as well. The after-tax return can be meaningfully lower than the headline figure, and it varies by the investor's situation and jurisdiction. Understanding the pre-tax total return is the essential first step; layering on the time held and the tax treatment turns it into the number that actually matters for building wealth.
Preguntas frecuentes
How do I calculate return on a stock?
Total cost is shares times buy price plus the buy fee. Proceeds are shares times sell price minus the sell fee. Net profit is proceeds plus dividends minus cost, and the return is profit divided by cost. Buying 100 shares at $50 and selling at $65 (with $10 fees each way) returns about 29.5%.
Should I include dividends in my return?
Yes — total return counts dividends alongside the price change. For dividend-paying stocks, dividends can be a large part of the return, so leaving them out understates performance and unfairly favours growth stocks over income stocks in any comparison.
How much do trading fees affect returns?
More than you'd think on small trades. A $20 round-trip fee is trivial on a $5,000 investment but is 4% of a $500 trade — enough to turn a gain into a loss. For frequent traders, fees plus spreads compound against you, a key reason active trading often underperforms buy-and-hold.
Is this return before or after tax?
Before tax. The net profit is subject to capital gains tax when you sell, often at a rate that depends on how long you held the shares — many systems tax long-term gains less. Dividends may be taxed too. Your after-tax return can be notably lower than this figure.