Stock Investment Return Calculator
Calculate total return on a stock investment including dividends and capital gains.
What this calculator does
This calculator answers one question about a shareholding you own: what has it genuinely returned, counting dividends alongside the price movement? Enter your original outlay, the current or sale value, and how long you have held it.
It gives you three figures. Gain or loss is the cash amount you are up or down. ROI expresses that against your original outlay. Annualised ROI turns the whole period into a yearly compound rate, which is the only figure that lets you compare a holding of eight months against one of eleven years on a level footing.
When to use it
Reach for it when reviewing a holding and you want something more honest than the unrealised gain shown on your platform, which typically ignores dividends already paid out. It also helps when deciding whether to sell: discovering a share has compounded at 4 percent while a global tracker did 8 percent changes the conversation.
It is worth running before a disposal for a second reason. Knowing the size of your gain lets you check it against the CGT annual exempt amount, and possibly split a sale across two tax years or use a Bed and ISA transfer to shelter the remainder.
Understanding the inputs
Purchase price is your full cost — shares multiplied by price paid, plus dealing commission and the 0.5 percent stamp duty reserve tax on UK share purchases. Leaving stamp duty out overstates every subsequent figure.
Current or sale value is what the holding is worth today, or your net proceeds after commission if sold. Add dividends received to this figure to get a total return rather than a bare price return. Holding period is in years and takes decimals, so eighteen months is 1.5. It affects only the annualised result, but it affects it substantially.
How is this calculated?
Capital Gain = (Current Price − Purchase Price) × Shares. Total Return = Capital Gain + Dividends. Total Return % = Total Return / (Purchase Price × Shares) × 100.
A worked example
Say you bought 400 shares at £6.85, an outlay of £2,740, and five years later they trade at £9.20, valuing the holding at £3,680. Across those five years the company paid 28p per share annually, giving you £560 in dividends.
Total value is £4,240 against £2,740 invested — a gain of £1,500, or 54.7 percent, which annualises to 9.1 percent a year. The price alone rose 34.3 percent. Dividends contributed more than half again on top of that, which is precisely the contribution a price chart hides from view.
Limitations and assumptions
This measures one holding, looking backwards. Past returns do not predict future ones, and the calculator assumes a single flat return with no volatility, so it tells you nothing about the drawdowns along the way or the risk you were taking to earn that number.
It excludes dividend tax and capital gains tax, platform fees, and the compounding effect of reinvesting dividends into further shares. Nothing here is investment advice or a personal recommendation. For a concentrated holding, a substantial gain, or anything involving share schemes, take advice from an FCA-authorised adviser.
Common Questions
- How is total shareholder return calculated?
- Take the current or sale value of the holding, subtract what you paid, then add every dividend received during the period. Divide by your original outlay and multiply by 100. Dividends matter enormously on the UK market — the FTSE 100 has long carried a yield well above most developed indices, so price charts badly understate returns.
- What is the difference between total return and annualised return?
- Total return covers the whole holding period however long it ran. Annualised return converts that into an equivalent yearly compound rate. A 50 percent total return sounds strong until you learn it took nine years, which is about 4.6 percent a year — less than several cash accounts have paid recently.
- Do I pay capital gains tax on shares?
- On disposals outside a tax wrapper, yes. The CGT annual exempt amount has been cut sharply in recent years, so gains above that threshold are taxable at the rates applying to shares for basic and higher rate taxpayers. Shares held inside a Stocks and Shares ISA are entirely free of CGT and dividend tax.
- How are dividends taxed in the UK?
- Dividends received outside an ISA or pension are covered first by the dividend allowance, which has been reduced substantially and now shelters only a modest amount. Above it, dividend tax applies at rates that step up with your income tax band. Inside a Stocks and Shares ISA, dividends are received entirely free of tax.
- Does stamp duty affect my return?
- Yes, and it is easy to overlook. Buying UK shares electronically attracts stamp duty reserve tax at 0.5 percent of the consideration. On a £10,000 purchase that is £50 gone before the shares move at all. Include it in your purchase figure so the return you calculate reflects what you actually paid.
- Should I use the ex-dividend price or the cum-dividend price?
- Use the actual prices you transacted at, then add dividends separately. A share price drops by roughly the dividend amount on the ex-dividend date, which is exactly why price-only comparisons mislead. Adding the cash dividend back is what restores the true picture of what the holding delivered.
- How do share consolidations and splits affect this?
- Neither changes your return, but mixing pre- and post-event prices will produce nonsense. After a ten-for-one consolidation you hold a tenth of the shares at ten times the price. Use adjusted prices from your broker's transaction history rather than headline prices quoted in the press at the time.
- What return should I expect from a single share?
- No dependable figure exists. Broad UK equity indices have delivered high single digit annual returns over long periods including dividends, but individual shares scatter wildly around that. Most underperform the index and a small handful account for the bulk of aggregate gains, which is the case for diversification rather than concentration.
- Why is my annualised return so much lower than the headline gain?
- Because annualising takes a root rather than dividing by the years. Doubling your money is a 100 percent gain, but achieved over ten years it is 7.2 percent a year. Check the holding period field carefully — an error there changes the annualised figure far more than most people expect.