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Stock Profit Calculator

Find your profit on a stock trade.

How it is calculated

Profit is the price gain per share times the number of shares: profit = (sell − buy) × shares. The percentage return compares the gain with what you paid per share: return % = (sell − buy) / buy × 100. Prices are per share in one currency (shown in dollars), and shares is the count you hold. The buy price must be above zero and shares cannot be negative; a sell price below the buy price gives a negative profit and return. Brokerage commissions, taxes, dividends and currency changes are not included, so the figure is the gross price result only.

Worked example

Bought at 42.50, sold at 51.20, 100 shares. Gain per share = 51.20 − 42.50 = 8.70. Profit = 8.70 × 100 = $870.00. Return = 8.70 / 42.50 × 100 = 20.47%. The cost of the position was 4,250, so the 870 gain is about a fifth of it.

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Common mistakes

  • Ignoring commissions and taxes, so the real take-home result is lower than shown.
  • Dividing the gain by the sell price instead of the buy price when working out the return.
  • Entering the total position value instead of the price per share.
  • Forgetting that a loss is the same formula; selling below the buy price gives a negative number, not a separate calculation.

Sources

About this calculator

This calculator finds your profit and percentage return on a stock trade from the buy price, sell price, and number of shares — profit = (sell price − buy price) × shares, as a gross result: brokerage commissions, taxes and dividends are not included.

Retail investors use it to check a trade's gross price return before deciding whether to sell (subtract commissions and taxes yourself), and it's also useful for quickly comparing two potential trades' payoff side by side without opening a full brokerage statement.

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Comments (1)

  • Editorial team

    The result is a gross price move, so build your costs in by adjusting the prices rather than the answer. Add the buy commission divided by the number of shares to the buy price, and subtract the sell commission divided by shares from the sell price: with 100 shares and a 10 fee each way, that is 0.10 on each side. Tax rules depend on your country and are not covered. How does your broker charge, a flat fee or a percentage?

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