The annual rate of return method is a finance term that refers to the annual percentage rate. It is the amount earned on a fund in the whole year. The yearly rate is calculated by taking the money gained or lost at the end of the year and dividing it by the original investment which was made at the beginning of the year. This method is also called as the annual rate of return or the nominal annual return. In the case of stocks, it factors in capital appreciation and the dividends paid.

It comprises any difference in investments, Cashflow situation or securities or other investments which an investor gets from his money invested like interest on Fixed deposits, dividends on stocks, cash dividends and coupons. It can be measured in absolute terms or percentage terms.

There can be a negative return as well which is loss instead of profits assuming the amount invested is greater than the sum of zero.
It is possible to compare returns with returns over a period of  time. To do so, it would be good to convert a return over a period into standard length. The converted amount is called the rate of return.

The time period is a year, so it is called annualised. In the same way, it is called the annualised return.

The annual rate of return includes only one year and does not consider the potential of compounding over many years.

What is a good annual rate of return?

A 7% rate of return is usually considered to be good. However, investors must have realistic expectations from the returns they will get according to the economic environment they are in.

How does annual rate of return work?

The annual rate of return is different from the annual return because the annual rate of return is the average that is taken into account for compounding the earnings over a period of time.

What Is Average Return?

Average return is an average of the number of returns generated over a period of time. It is the same mathematical principle that is deployed here as the set of numbers. The method is simple: the numbers are added and made into one sum and the sum is divided by the number of items.

When to use annualised rate of return?

For investors having a diverse portfolio, it becomes easy to compare the returns on different investments. Whereas the annual rate of return may change in case of stocks, in case of FDs it will remain the same as committed at the beginning of the year. For investments with variable returns it may become difficult to assess how investments are performing. This method is useful where the rate of return is known but the actual percentage is not clear.

 By having a single percentage for all investments, it is easy to calculate the total return.

Return on equity (ROE)

The return on equity measures shareholders equity. To determine an ROE, one will need to divide a company’s net income by shareholders equity. To get shareholders equity to subtract all liabilities from assets.

Return on investment (ROI)

A return on investment focuses on how large a return is relative to its investment. The return on investment or ROI is expressed in percentage terms usually. To calculate the ROI, we need to subtract the cost of the investment from the current value of the investment. Then, it needs to be divided by the cost of the investment.

To calculate ROI, need to reduce the cost from the current value of the investment. Then, divide the difference by the cost of the investment. The current value of the investment means the profits made from the sale of the investment.

Return on invested capital (ROIC)

A company’s ROIC is usually expressed in percentage terms. The full form of ROIC is Return on invested capital. This is usually used to assess how efficiently a company uses its capital to make profit-oriented investments. It measures the return a company makes on capital investments.

Other Return Measures

Some other return methods which may be an extension of the basic return method, include, adjusting for continuous periods of time, something that comes handy in compounding several calculations over a longer period. And some of the financial market applications.

Asset managers can use time-weighted or money weighted rates of return to measure the performance or the rate of return on an investment portfolio.

These are two ways to measure the returns on investments by the asset managers. The former focuses on the compound rate of growth, the later focuses on the compound rate of growth.

Money-weighted rates of return focus on cash flows, the time-weighted rate of return looks at the compound rate of growth of the portfolio.