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Dividend Reinvestment Calculator

Enter the shares you started with, then every dividend you were paid and the price it was reinvested at. The page adds up what those dividends bought: how many shares you hold now, what they cost you on average, and what your annual dividend income is at the latest payout. A dividend growth rate calculator is usually asked to carry a payout forward at a rate; this page works from the other end of the same question — the dividends you were actually paid, one row each — so the growth between your first row and your last is on the page as the figures you typed rather than as a rate the page assumed for you. The arithmetic is printed underneath, using your own numbers.

The position you started with

Shares you started with Price you paid per share

Each dividend you were paid

How often these dividends were paid This is what turns the latest dividend per share into an annual figure.
Dividend per share Price it was reinvested at Shares it bought

Money you added along the way — optional

Leave the amount empty if you only ever reinvested the dividends. Anything you add is counted into the period it falls in and buys shares at that period's price.
Current price per share — optional No live price feed here — type the price yourself, or leave this empty to get your shares, cost and income only.
Shares now —
Average cost per share —
Total invested —
Annual dividend income —
Yield on cost —

How your shares, cost and income are worked out

Every dividend you were paid turns into two numbers: the cash that landed, and the shares that cash bought at the price on the day. Those shares then earn the next dividend, which is what makes the holding grow.

The one idea worth holding on to: a reinvested dividend counts as money you paid in. It is cash you earned and then spent on shares, so it goes into the top of that average, not only into the share count.

Worked example: 100 shares at $50, so 5,000.00 paid in. Then two yearly dividends of $1.00 a share. The first is reinvested at $40: 100.0000 × 1.00 = 100.00, which buys 2.5000 shares, so you hold 102.5000. The second is reinvested at $50: 102.5000 × 1.00 = 102.50, which buys 2.0500 shares, so you hold 104.5500. Total invested is 5,000.00 + 100.00 + 102.50 = 5,202.50, and the average cost is 5,202.50 ÷ 104.5500 = 49.760880…, shown as 49.7608. Annual income at $1.00 a share is 104.55, and yield on cost is 104.55 ÷ 5,202.50 × 100 = 2.00%. Type those two rows in and the page returns those figures.

Rounding: every figure on this page is rounded down, never up — the same rule as the rest of the site. Share counts and the average cost are shown to four decimals, amounts to two and percentages to two, so the number you read is never larger than the one that was computed. Each period's shares are worked out from the share count exactly as it is printed at the end of the period before, so the rows and the totals agree with each other.

Why a cheaper reinvestment price moves your average more

The price the dividend is reinvested at decides how much that dividend buys. In the example above, the $100.00 bought 2.5000 shares at $40 but only 2.0500 at $50 — the same money, fewer shares. Periods when the price is low add more shares per dollar, and those cheaper shares pull the average down harder than the dear periods pull it up.

That is why the average cost after a run of reinvestments is usually below the price you started with, and why it is not the plain average of the prices: the weighting is the shares, and the shares came out of the division.

The same two dividends, two prices to go back in at. Both runs put in almost exactly the same money and both are priced at 50.00 at the end; one is ahead of it and the other behind.

Two runs of the same two dividends at different reinvestment prices 100 shares at 50.00 and two dividends of 1.00 a share. Reinvested at 40.00 and 50.00: 104.5500 shares, average cost 49.7608, annual income 104.55, and 25.00 ahead at a price of 50.00. Reinvested at 60.00 and 70.00: 103.1188 shares, average cost 50.4433, annual income 103.11, and 45.72 behind at that same price. Two runs of the same two dividends 100 shares at 50.00, two dividends of 1.00 a share, the price back at 50.00 reinvested at 40 / 50 reinvested at 60 / 70 Shares now 104.5500 103.1188 Average cost a share 49.7608 50.4433 Annual dividend income 104.55 103.11 Total invested 5,202.50 5,201.66 Where each run stands at a price of 50.00 cheap run, at 40 and 50 +25.00 (0.48%) dear run, at 60 and 70 45.72 behind (0.88%) The money in is within a dollar of the same in both runs, and the price is back where it started. The 70.72 between them is the two prices the dividends went back in at.

Dividend growth, and the rate this page will not assume

A dividend growth rate is the change in the payout per share from one period to the next, written as a percent. There are two things you can do with one: measure the growth that has already happened, or assume it going forward and project the income. This page works out neither as a figure, and it does hold the record you would measure from — every row carries the dividend per share that was paid, so the first row beside the last is the growth itself, sitting there in the numbers you typed.

What it will not do is flatten those rows into a single rate, and that is a choice with a reason behind it. One rate across a run of payouts says the dividend moved in a straight line; in practice it rarely does. A company raises the payout, holds it for two years, raises it again, and one number spanning all of that describes none of the three stretches. The page would rather show you each payment as it was, which is what the rows do, than hand you a figure that reads like a promise about the next one.

The projecting half of a dividend growth rate calculator is out of reach here for a second reason as well: it is a forecast, and nothing on this page looks forward. Every figure above comes out of the periods you typed in.

What is counted, and what is not

This page works out what already happened, from the amounts, the dividends per share and the prices you type in. Nothing else goes into the arithmetic. If you want the other side of the same holding — what the shares pay you before anything is put back in — the dividend calculator does that job.

One assumption the arithmetic makes: a regular contribution is treated as buying at the same price as the dividend for the period it falls in — the contribution and that period's dividend are pooled and buy together, at that period's reinvestment price. If your contribution actually went in on a different day or at a different price, give it a period of its own and it will be counted at the price you type there.

Amounts are shown in whatever currency you typed; no exchange rate is applied anywhere.

Frequently asked questions

How to calculate dividend reinvestment?

Each period runs the same two steps. The shares held at the start of the period are multiplied by the dividend a share to give the cash, and that cash is divided by the price it goes back in at to give the shares it buys. What makes it more than the same division repeated is the first of those steps: the share count it starts from is not the count you began with, because it already contains every share the earlier periods bought. The dividend a period pays is worked out on a holding that reinvestment has been growing.

While the price and the dividend a share hold still, that chain collapses into one line you can check by hand. 100 shares at 50.00 with 1.00 a share going back in at 50.00 four times is 100 × 1.02 × 1.02 × 1.02 × 1.02 = 108.2432, and the page, running the four periods one at a time, lands on the same 108.2432. Let the price move and the short form stops working. With the same four dividends going back in at 50.00, 60.00, 40.00 and 50.00, the page gives 108.4183 shares; putting the average of those four prices, 50.00, into the short form still gives 108.2432, which is 0.1751 of a share short. The two periods do not cancel each other out: the 40.00 period buys 2.5925 shares where a 50.00 period buys 2.0000, an extra 0.5925, while the 60.00 period buys 1.7000, a shortfall of 0.3000, and the extra shares go on paying dividends of their own. That is why this page takes the periods one at a time and asks for a price for each.

Is a dividend reinvestment calculator the same thing as a DRIP calculator?

Yes — DRIP stands for dividend reinvestment plan, and both names ask for the same arithmetic: dividends paid, the price they went back in at, and the shares, cost and income that come out. This is one page, not two.

How do reinvested dividends change my cost basis?

They raise it, and they raise the share count with it. Each reinvested dividend is treated here the way the cash actually moved: you were paid, and that money bought shares. So the money goes into your total invested and the shares go into your holding, and the average cost per share is the two divided. That is why a long run of reinvestments leaves you with more shares and a cost basis that is not the price you first paid — for how cost basis methods work on the tax side, see the cost basis section on the stock average calculator.

Is there a DRIP cost basis calculator here, or do I work it out myself?

It is on this page, and it is the same two fields as everything else: the dividend per share and the price it was reinvested at, one row per payment. The page keeps the running total for you — the shares each dividend bought, the total invested including every reinvested dividend, and the average cost per share over all of it. You do not have to keep a running tally yourself.

Do I have to enter how many years I have held it?

No, and there is no field for it. You enter the payments you actually received, one row each — two, ten or forty of them. Length of time never enters the arithmetic: what matters is how many payments there were, what each one paid per share, and the price each one went back in at.

How is the annual dividend income worked out?

From the latest row you entered: that period's dividend per share, times the shares you hold now, times how many of those payments happen in a year. Change the yearly/quarterly/monthly setting and the annual figure follows. If your payouts vary, the page uses the most recent one — it is the latest figure you have, not an average.

Can it look up my dividends, or the price they were reinvested at?

No. There is no dividend lookup, no price lookup and no connection to any data source, by design — a fetched figure can be wrong, delayed or for the wrong ticker, and this page would rather show nothing than show a number it did not get from you. Your statements are the source here.

Does it count the tax on the dividends?

No. There is no tax field, so every figure here is before tax. Note that reinvesting a dividend does not by itself settle whether that dividend is taxable — that depends on the account it sits in and the rules that apply to you, and this page works none of it out. Use the figure your broker reports, and a tax professional if it matters.

What if I took some dividends as cash instead of reinvesting them?

Only enter the ones that were reinvested — the rows are the payments that bought shares. If you want the average of purchases you made with new money, the DCA calculator takes amounts and prices, and the stock average calculator takes share counts directly.

Is there a downside to reinvesting dividends?

One shows up in the arithmetic before any question about the company does: a reinvested dividend is money you paid in, so it lifts your total invested as well as your share count, and what that money buys depends on the price on the day. Run the same holding twice and let the price finish where it began. 100 shares at $50, then two dividends of $1.00 a share. Reinvested at $40 and $50, they buy 2.5000 and 2.0500 shares: you end holding 104.5500 at an average cost of 49.7608, and against a price of $50 the position is 25.00 ahead (0.48%). Reinvested at $60 and $70 instead, the same two dividends buy 1.6666 and 1.4522 shares: you end holding 103.1188 at an average cost of 50.4433, and against that same $50 the position is 45.72 behind (0.88%). The money in is within a dollar of the same in both runs, 5,202.50 against 5,201.66, and the price has not moved at all; every bit of the difference is the two prices the dividends went back in at. That is the side of a DRIP a projection cannot show you, because a projection assumes the price path instead of asking you for it. Whether any of that makes reinvesting the right thing for you is not a question this page answers.

Does this page tell me whether I should reinvest my dividends?

No, and nothing here should be read that way. The page does the arithmetic on the payments you enter; it does not compare choices or tell you what to do with your money. It answers one question: given these dividends and these prices, where does my holding stand now?

Does it work on my phone, and do I need an account?

Yes to the first, and no to the second. The fields stack to a single column on a narrow screen and the results stay inside the width of the page. There is no sign-up, no pop-up and nothing to install: the whole calculation runs in your browser, and your numbers are not sent anywhere.

This page is a calculator, not investment advice. Reinvesting dividends changes your cost basis; it does not make a position safer. Contact: contact@stockavg.com