MARKETS / GLOSSARY / CAGR (COMPOUND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE)

CAGR (compound annual growth rate)

CAGR is the single yearly rate that would have taken a figure from where it started to where it ended, if it had grown by exactly that rate every year.

Definition

How it is computed here

Formula(value at the end ÷ value at the start) ^ (1 ÷ years) − 1
UnitRatio (shown as %)
PeriodOne fiscal year, as reported
SourceExtracted from SEC filings; every value on an asset page carries the accounting tag and the filing it came from
The inputs

What goes into the formula

Value at the start of the windowThe figure n fiscal years before the most recent one. If that year is missing from the series, no rate is published — this site does not substitute the nearest available year, because a '5-year' rate measured over four is not a 5-year rate.
Value at the endThe most recent fiscal year on record for that company, which is not necessarily the most recent calendar year — see fiscal year.
A refusal to cross zeroWhere either end is zero or negative the rate does not exist: a company that went from a loss to a profit has no meaningful compound rate, and a root of a negative number is not a growth rate. This site leaves the cell blank.
A refusal to cross a share splitFor per-share figures only. A split changes the unit, so the two ends are not the same measurement.

A formula without its inputs explained is decoration. Where an input is missing from a filing, the metric is left empty here rather than completed with a zero or an estimate.

Worked example

How to calculate cagr (compound annual growth rate), step by step

Revenue over five fiscal years, and why the average is not the answer.

Revenue, FY2020$2,500M
Revenue, FY2025$4,000M
  1. Ratio = 4,000 ÷ 2,500 = 1.60.
  2. Fifth root: 1.60 ^ (1 ÷ 5) = 1.0986.
  3. CAGR = 1.0986 − 1 = 9.9% a year.
  4. Check: 2,500 × 1.099⁵ = $4,000M.
  5. The naive answer — 60% growth ÷ 5 years = 12% a year — is wrong, because it ignores that each year grows on the previous year's larger base.

Result: 9.9% a year, not 12%

The gap between 9.9% and 12% is compounding. Over long windows the simple average overstates growth every single time.

The figures in this example are illustrative and rounded — they are not a real company. The real figures on this site are the live ones below and on every asset page, each carrying the filing it came from.

Why it matters

What cagr (compound annual growth rate) is good for

A five-year CAGR turns a jagged series into one number you can compare across companies. This site publishes it over 3, 5, 10 and 15 years side by side for revenue, net income, earnings per share, dividend per share and total shareholder return — and reading the four horizons together is the point: a company whose 3-year rate is far below its 10-year rate is decelerating, whatever the headline says.

The limit

What this number does not tell you

CAGR describes only the two endpoints and is blind to everything between them. A company that grew steadily and one that collapsed and recovered can show the same rate, and the second is not the same investment. It is also acutely sensitive to which year the window starts in: beginning one year earlier, in a recession, can double the apparent rate without a single figure changing.

Every metric on this site is published with its blind spot stated. A figure without its limit is half a fact.

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In the data

Highest reported cagr (compound annual growth rate)

From the most recent fiscal year of each company.

On a real company

See it in a published filing

Their sectors

These pages show the figure across up to nineteen fiscal years, with the accounting tag and the filing behind every value.

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