Investment Performance Report

brewtoo64

Quicken does not count Reinvested Dividend transactions in Investment Performance Reports. Quicken DOES count these transaction if entered as two transactions - a DIV and a BUY. Why do they do that? Both mean the same thing. It's a problem because Fidelity downloads these as (one) REINVEST DIVIDEND transaction about half the time, and as (two) DIV/BUY transactions about half the time. Seems to me that Quicken would treat both the same.

Tom Young

The IPR keys on cash flow, and the timing of those cash flows.

A reinvested dividend is reported as a "same day" transaction - cash out (dividend) and cash in (using the cash to buy shares) so the net from a cash standpoint is $0.

A DIV followed by a BUY generally has a one-day lag; cash on day 1, cash used (buy) on day two. Net cash is still $0 but since they are different days the IPR report is required to calculate the two transactions.

Jim_Harman

Actually the reinvested dividends are included in the report. They increase the ending market value of the security because you have more shares than you started with, even though the reinvestment is not shown explicitly in the report.

Try this experiment in a test file:

Start a year with 100 shares @ $10.00, price increases to 12.00 Oct 1 with no dividend. At year end the value will be $1,200 Avg. annual return = 20 %

Add a July 1 dividend of $100 and buy 10 shares @ $10.00 in separate transactions on the same day. The Investments and Returns cancel each other out in the report. Year end value = 110 x !2.00 = $1,320, Avg Annual Return = 32%

Change July 1 transactions to Reinvest Dividend as above. No detail recorded but year end value is still $1,320, Avg Annual Return = 32%