This page contains a Yield on Cost Calculator for stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. Enter your choice of ticker and purchase date (and optionally, the price you paid and amount invested) and it estimates the dividend yield on your original cost basis, how that yield has grown, and how the yield compares to the security's current yield.
Yield on cost calculator
Using the Yield on Cost calculator
Fill in your choice of position (and any extras), then hit Calculate Yield on Cost:
- Ticker – one stock, ETF, CEF, ADR, or mutual fund (or, you can search by name)
- Purchase date – when to simulate a purchase in the scenario. If your date wasn't a trading day, the tool uses the last trading observation on or before the date, and tells you which date it used
- Price paid (optional) – the purchase price to use. Without it, the tool will estimate using the historical split-adjusted closing price for your date
- Amount invested ($) – defaults to $10,000, feel free to adjust it up or down!
Once you run, the overview then reports your recurring yield on cost, the yield at purchase (when the ticker has a complete trailing year of payouts), and the current market yield. The tool will also show your cost per current share, shares 'owned' on the current split-adjusted basis, an estimated annual and monthly income amount, and the income growth since purchase with the income growth's CAGR.
The chart and History Table tab show how yield on cost moved from your purchase date to today.
Want to take it further? I thought you might! The Export link below the chart downloads a CSV with your inputs, the purchase date requested (and used), cost-basis details, plus the headline results, income growth, and the historical series.
And wait, there's more! The page URL captures your whole scenario and updates as you update your inputs. Bookmark or share the page URL to pick up the analysis, or outsource it to a friend. For example, here's Coca-Cola purchased in mid-2015.
What is yield on cost?
Yield on cost divides the security's current recurring annual dividend or distribution by your original purchase price, instead of today's market price:
Yield\ on\ Cost = \frac{Current\ Recurring\ TTM\ Payout\ per\ Share}{Cost\ Basis\ per\ Share}Only payout changes move yield on cost, since market price movement after purchase doesn't change your basis (split-adjusted, that is).
In an ideal scenario, where you buy a steady dividend grower and hold for a decade, the yield on your original dollars can climb well past anything the market quotes today. That's the appeal and the trap: a rising yield on cost tells you the dividend grew, but it can't tell you that holding the ticker was the best use of the money. This calculator works around that by showing the current market yield right beside your YoC.
Methodology and limitations
Data comes from Tiingo end-of-day prices, dividends, distributions, and split factors, using the same recurring-versus-special classification as our other dividend calculators.
All figures use recurring trailing-12-month payouts. Special or one-time distributions are excluded from yield-on-cost and income math here. All prices and yields are split-adjusted to the best of our (and the data's) ability.
Here are some other limitations of the tool:
- Income estimates scale the current recurring payout by the entered investment, but they don't add reinvested dividends or later contributions. Further, they don't account for any taxes or fees, and they naively assume end-of-day pricing. For other scenarios, you can try our Dividend Income Calculator.
- Yield at purchase and income growth require a trailing-year payout baseline at purchase date to mean anything.
- In the interest of speed, longer time frames downsample. Generally, expect weekly points for spans up to five years and monthly beyond that. You can verify the resolution by exporting to CSV.
- Yield on cost is not a total return. It ignores what the security's price did after you bought and doesn't assume sales nor anything else. You can play with our stock, ETF, and mutual fund total return calculators to better estimate overall performance.
And a final warning: as with all of our tools: this is for starting research only and is absolutely not investment advice. Consult a financial professional when needed, and I encourage you to double check all results and data elsewhere.
All that said: may the payouts be with you!
