Stock Average Calculator

Multiply the shares by the price for every purchase, add those costs together, add any commissions, then divide by the total number of shares. For 100 at $50 and 50 at $40 that is ($5,000 + $2,000) ÷ 150 = $46.67. The order of the purchases makes no difference, and neither do the dates.

Because that only works if you bought the same number of shares each time. Averaging $50 and $40 gives $45, but if you bought twice as many at $50 the true figure is $46.67 — you own more of the expensive shares, so they count for more. The plain average is shown on this page beside the correct one so the difference is visible rather than assumed.

Thirty, and a new row appears automatically as soon as you fill the last one. This is worth stating because the page currently ranking first for this search accepts exactly two — a first purchase and a second — with no way to add a third.

Yes. Enter 3.274 shares and it is treated exactly as written. Fractional quantities are normal now for reinvested dividends and for brokers that let you buy by dollar amount, so rounding them would introduce an error in precisely the cases where people most want the answer.

With shares in column A and prices in column B: =SUMPRODUCT(A:A,B:B)/SUM(A:A). That single function does the weighting correctly. Using =AVERAGE(B:B) instead is the mistake this page keeps pointing at — it ignores the quantities entirely.

Not to the average. It is a weighted sum, so the same purchases in any order produce the same figure. Timing matters for tax lot accounting and for measuring your return over time, but not for this number.

That is what the target block on this page solves, and the formula is n = S(T − A) ÷ (P − T): your current share count times the distance from your average to your target, divided by the distance from your buy price to your target. From 150 shares at $46.67, reaching a $40.00 average by buying at $30.00 takes exactly 100 shares. Every other calculator on this search makes you guess and re-check.

Because the price you entered is not below the target you want. Every share you buy pulls your average toward the price you paid, so buying at $52 moves a $48 average up, never down to $45 — and no quantity changes that direction. The same applies in reverse when averaging up. Rather than return a negative share count, the calculator tells you which of the two numbers has to change.

That is not a question arithmetic can answer, and anyone whose calculator tells you it can is selling something. What the maths gives you is the price of the decision: how much more capital you would commit, and what your break-even becomes. What it cannot tell you is whether the fall reflects something real about the business. A lower average feels like progress while quietly increasing your exposure to a position that is already going against you.

Yes — it is the same equation with the inequality reversed. Set a target above your current average and a buy price above the target. If you hold 100 shares at $20 and want a $30 average, buying 100 more at $40 gets you exactly there.

Averaging down is a reaction: the price fell, you buy more, your average drops. Dollar-cost averaging is a schedule: you invest a fixed amount at fixed intervals whether the price rose or fell, and the averaging is a side effect rather than the goal. This page is for the first. The DCA calculator on this site is for the second, and the link below the results carries your average across to it.

Because each percentage is measured against a different number. Fall 20% from $100 and you are at $80; rising 20% from $80 only gets you to $96. You need 25% to return to $100. Down 50% needs 100% to recover. This is why the calculator reports the move required to break even as its own figure rather than letting you infer it from the loss.

Cost basis is what you paid in total, including commissions: the sum of every purchase plus fees. Per share, it is that total divided by the number of shares — the same figure this page calls your average price. The complications come later, at sale, when you have to decide which shares you sold and adjust for any splits or spin-offs since.

Usually you do not get to choose. For individual shares, US brokers default to FIFO — the first shares you bought are treated as the first sold — and the average cost method is generally only available for mutual funds and dividend reinvestment plans. If you sold part of a stock holding, the average on this page is the right number for understanding the position but may not be the one to report. Check what your broker applied, and take proper advice if the amount matters.

Yes — commissions and transaction fees paid to acquire shares are added to the basis, which raises it and reduces your eventual taxable gain. Enter them in the fees field and they are folded into both the cost basis and the per-share average. Ongoing account maintenance fees are a different matter and are not part of the basis.

Start with your broker: since 2011 they have been required to track and report basis for covered securities, so anything bought after that should be on your statements. For older holdings, or shares transferred between brokers, you may have to reconstruct it from trade confirmations, old statements, or the historical price on the purchase date, adjusted for any splits. Reporting a basis of zero is the fallback and it is an expensive one — it makes the whole proceeds taxable.

Through the 1099-B your broker files, which reports proceeds and, for covered securities, the basis they hold. That is matched against your return. Where a broker reports basis as unknown, the figure you supply is what stands unless it is questioned — which is why keeping trade confirmations for older holdings matters. This is general information, not tax advice.

Each reinvestment is a purchase at that day's price, and it increases your basis. Enter them as ordinary rows. Missing them is one of the most common ways people overstate a gain and overpay: you were taxed on the dividend when it was paid, and if you do not add the reinvested shares to your basis you are taxed on that money a second time at sale.

Not automatically, because doing it properly needs the split history and the date of each purchase — market data this site does not hold. The adjustment is one line of arithmetic though: in a 2-for-1 split, double the shares and halve the price on every purchase made before the split, then enter the adjusted numbers. Your total cost stays the same, which is how you know you have done it right.

No. This site holds no market data and no accounts, so there is nothing to look up and nothing to log in to. Everything is typed in and everything stays in your browser. Tools that do fetch prices are useful, but they are a different kind of product with a different set of trade-offs.

Deliberately not. A realized gain depends on which specific shares you are treated as having sold, and for individual stock that is normally FIFO rather than the average — so a calculator that applied the average here would hand you a wrong number for a tax return while looking authoritative. The unrealized gain against your average is shown, which is the right tool for judging a position. For a sale, use your broker's figures.

No. Every calculation runs in your browser, there is no account and no server call when you change a figure. The Copy link button encodes your purchases into the URL so you can bookmark or share a position, and that link is the only place they go — so treat it as you would any other note about your holdings.