Holding Period Return Calculator

About this calculator

This calculator finds an investment's holding period return using HPR = (ending value − beginning value + income) ÷ beginning value, capturing the total return over any arbitrary period — whether days or decades — by including not just price appreciation but also income earned along the way, like dividends, interest, or rental income. Unlike an annualized return such as CAGR, HPR reports the actual total return for the specific period held, without normalizing it to a yearly rate.

Investors use it to evaluate the actual performance of a stock, bond, or real estate holding over the exact time they owned it; portfolio managers use it as a building block before annualizing returns for comparison across investments held for different lengths of time; and finance students use it as a foundational return calculation before moving on to time-weighted and money-weighted return measures. Enter the beginning value, ending value, and any income received to get the holding period return.