# Stock Total Return and Dividend Reinvestment Calculator (US)

Written by:
PK

Below is a stock return calculator which automatically factors and calculates dividend reinvestment (DRIP). Additionally, you can simulate daily, weekly, monthly, or annual periodic investments into any stock and see your total estimated portfolio value on every date.

There are over 4,500 American stocks in the database. Data is accurate to within the last 7 days. Read beyond the tool for stock reinvestment calculation methodology, notes, and other information about the DRIP tool.

Note (11/26/2020): We're updating the tool to automate splits and IPOs soon. Some recent IPOs aren't yet in the tool. (Join the list, we'll announce updates.)

## Stock Total Return and Dividend Reinvestment (DRIP) Calculator

Note: The calculator does not account for spin-offs.

## How To Use the Dividend Calculator (DRIP)

To begin, you need to enter at least a stock ticker. As you type, it will search through legal stock tickers to help you complete the field and explore the set.

### Basic Stock Details and Inputs

• Stock Ticker: Enter a valid, active stock ticker from IEX
• Starting Amount ($): Enter an initial investment amount, in dollars • Starting Date: Enter when an investment was first made* • Ending Date: Enter when an investment was sold* ° Depending on the stock data, we might adjust the starting and ending date. Look carefully after modeling a scenario. ### Advanced Dividend and Periodic Investment Options Click the 'Toggle Advanced' button to open the advanced stock options panel. • Show Events: Check the box for a listing of every dividend on that ticker in our database. If you choose to simulate periodic investments, they will be added as well. • Periodic Investments: Select the box to create a reinvestment scenario for a given ticker. • "Monthly": If you are simulating periodic investments, select how often you would have invested in the stock. • Regular Amount: The amount invested every period selected from the left pull-down below it. (Such as in a DRIP or Dividend Reinvestment Plan) ### Interpreting Portfolio Model Results • Final Value ($): The value of the investment on the 'Ending Date'.
• Annual Return: Our estimate to the annual percentage return by the investment, including dollar cost averaging. (Also see our compound annual growth calculator)
• Graph: The value of the stock investment over time. Note – if you are on desktop – you can drag over the graph to see the value of the portfolio on any day.

### How do the periodic stock investments work?

The tool attempts to time dividends based upon the ex-dividend date of stocks in our database. Where the tool sees a dividend, it invests at the daily open price. All other prices in the tool, such as the final portfolio value and daily updates, are based on close price.

When you choose to model periodic investments, the tool in shorthand invests every 1, 7, 30, or 365 days, respectively. (Read: no accounting for leap years!). Where we register a dividend and investment on the same day, the investment goes in at the open price but (as you'd expect), it doesn't factor into the dividend amount.

### Does this tool perform stock valuation?

Remember, "past performance is no guarantee of future results"!

If you see a previously successful investment (maybe especially if you do!), don't extrapolate gains to the sky.

Stock valuation is art more than science. Value investors try to model a fair value based on the characteristics of the company – especially financials and cash flows. Along value lines, we have a few tools for you to attempt to value stocks:

There are no guarantees in stock valuation - it's hard to predict the future. However, those tools might help point you in the right direction.

## Source and Methodology of the Stock Total Return Calculator

The tool uses the IEX Cloud API on the backend. IEX Cloud is a paid API provider, so we have some (light) limitations in place:

• Stock data may be up to 7 days old.
• Splits are a manual process
• Please be patient with splits. We hope to eventually automate these.
• There are rate limits in place for your usage:
• Maximum 50 scenarios per day
• Maximum 10 scenarios per minute
• The tool doesn't – and can't – account for spinoffs

### Limitations and Disclaimers

The stock total return calculated is idealized, based on closing prices and unrealistic dividend timing, and will never match exact returns.

The tool is for informational purposes only and we cannot warrant the results. Verify any information you gather from this tool on your own. Treat the stock data as initial research.

We are not modeling taxes, management fees, dividend payment timing, slippage, and other sources of error. It is possible that the dataset contains errors as well.

### Bug Reports, Feature Requests, and Requests to Help with the Stock Total Return Calculator

I need your help with this tool - we only had 2 testers. Let me know if you find a bug. Include which ticker caused the issue so I can debug the data.

As for enhancements: outside of ads, I'm not compensated to build and maintain this tool. If you have significant feature requests, make a contracting inquiry.

We wish we could help you with your stock research questions. Unfortunately, we have to stress that this information is for informational and research purposes only. We will not respond to requests to provide investment returns in a legal capacity. We can only help you with research inquiries.

(You probably need a professional known as a "forensic accountant" for legal purposes.)

## Musings on the Any Stock Dividend Reinvestment Calculator

We originally built a version of this stock total return calculator for DQYDJ's five year anniversary (and 749th published article). Unfortunately, data sources came and went – and we're on iteration 3 or 4 now.

(This time, we're much more confident we can keep it going – we really liked playing with the IEX Cloud API.)

But, really, our aims are altruistic with this tool. For the last decade we've stressed that you need to produce fair, dividend reinvested return comparisons when discussing investments.

That means this tool aligned perfectly with the other dividend reinvestment tools we have elsewhere on the site. Try comparing your results to one of these (with inflation adjustments turned off):

As for styles of investing, we think the best thing to do with a windfall is so invest a lump sum. For investing from your paycheck, we suggest dollar cost averaging. And to model a future investment, use the investment calculator.

Even though we've been fighting this battle for years, price returns still get all the press.

Price is only one element of return, however. Stocks payout dividends in dollars per share or in new shares of stock; simply quoting price returns misses a real (and significant!) portion of total returns.

It is especially egregious when companies pay special dividends. These can be massive payouts that (if ignored) would look like a massive overnight loss.

With this calculator, skip the half-truths and run your scenarios directly. All you need to provide is a ticker and some dates, and we'll do the total return math for you. And now, also try it with ETFs here.

We hope you enjoy the any stock dividend reinvestment calculator. If you see articles quoting price returns on dividend paying stocks - send them our way, deal?

### Don't Quit Your Day Job...

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