ποΈ NAV Calculator
What one share of the fund is actually worth.
Net assets divided by shares outstanding
Estimates for planning only, not financial advice.
A mutual fund's NAV, or net asset value per share, is the fund's total assets minus its liabilities, divided by shares outstanding. It is the price at which you buy and sell open-end fund shares each day, struck once after the market closes. If the fund holds $495 million net and has 40 million shares, each share's NAV is $12.38.
How to Use This Calculator
Enter the fund's total assets: every stock, bond, and cash position marked to market. Subtract liabilities: accrued management fees, pending settlements, and other obligations. Divide by shares outstanding. The result is the per-share value the fund company publishes daily.
Total the fund's assets at market value. For a quick sanity check this should roughly match the fund's reported total net assets.
Subtract liabilities and divide by shares outstanding to get NAV per share.
Compare NAV over time for performance, not across funds: a $12 NAV is not cheaper than a $120 NAV. Our mutual fund calculator projects growth instead.
The NAV Formula
Assets are marked to their closing market prices each business day, which is why NAV moves daily. Liabilities are small but real: the management fee accrues daily, and trades awaiting settlement count until they clear. Open-end funds must buy and redeem shares at NAV, so the calculation has to be exact; even small errors get corrected and disclosed.
Worked Example
A fund holds $500 million of securities and cash against $5 million of accrued fees and payables, with 40 million shares outstanding. Net assets are $495 million. NAV per share is $495 million divided by 40 million, which is $12.375, published as $12.38. An investor buying $10,000 receives about 807.7 shares at that price.
Reading Your Result
NAV tells you the liquidation value per share, not whether the fund is good. Performance is the change in NAV plus distributions, and a fund with a $12 NAV that grew 10 percent beat a $120 NAV fund that grew 5 percent. Also watch the gap between NAV and market price for closed-end funds and ETFs, which can trade at discounts or premiums.
My rule: never pick funds by NAV level. A $10 NAV is not a bargain and a $200 NAV is not expensive; only the percentage change and the expense ratio matter. What does matter is buying at the right NAV: orders placed before the cutoff get that day's closing NAV, after it get the next day's. For the long-run growth math once you are invested, our compound interest calculator shows what steady returns do.
Estimates for planning only, not financial advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is NAV in a mutual fund?
NAV, or net asset value per share, is the per-share value of a mutual fund's holdings: total assets minus liabilities, divided by shares outstanding. Open-end funds price all buys and sells at the NAV computed once daily after markets close.
How is NAV calculated?
Add up every asset at market value, subtract all liabilities including accrued fees, and divide by shares outstanding. A fund with $495 million net and 40 million shares has a NAV of $12.38 per share. ETFs publish an intraday indicative NAV every 15 seconds, which is why they trade near fair value all day.
Is a lower NAV better when buying a fund?
No. NAV level says nothing about value or future returns. A $12 fund and a $120 fund with identical holdings and fees perform identically in percentage terms. Compare expense ratios, holdings, and track record, never the NAV number itself. A fund with a $10 NAV and one with a $100 NAV and identical portfolios will show identical percentage returns.
Why does NAV drop after a distribution?
Because the fund paid out part of its assets. A $1 per share dividend reduces NAV by $1, but you received the $1, so your total value is unchanged. It is a transfer, not a loss, though it can create a tax bill in taxable accounts.
What is the difference between NAV and market price?
For open-end mutual funds they are the same by rule. For closed-end funds and ETFs, market price is set by buyers and sellers and can sit above NAV (premium) or below it (discount). Persistent discounts often reflect weak demand or high fees.
When is NAV calculated?
Once per business day, after the underlying markets close, using closing prices. Orders received before the fund's cutoff (often 4 p.m. Eastern) transact at that day's NAV; later orders get the next business day's NAV. This daily accrual is why performance figures are always quoted net of fees, never gross.
Do fees reduce NAV?
Yes, continuously. The expense ratio accrues daily against fund assets, so NAV already reflects fees. That is why two identical portfolios with different fees show different NAV growth over time, and why low fees compound into a real advantage. Leveraged ETFs can show wild NAV swings, but that is asset volatility, not insolvency.
Can NAV be negative?
In theory if liabilities exceeded assets, but in practice essentially never for a regulated fund. Funds cannot borrow beyond strict limits, and liabilities are a tiny fraction of assets. A falling NAV reflects falling asset prices, not insolvency. Watch NAV alongside the share price for closed-end funds: the discount or premium between them is the real signal.
How does NAV relate to fund performance?
Performance equals the percentage change in NAV plus any distributions paid, assuming reinvestment. Quoted returns are always computed this way, so a fund whose NAV went from $12.38 to $13.62 with no distributions returned exactly 10 percent. Over a decade, a 1 percent fee gap compounds into roughly a 10 percent NAV growth gap.
What is forward pricing?
The rule that mutual fund orders execute at the next computed NAV, not the last published one. It prevents traders from exploiting stale prices after market-moving news. You never know your exact execution price when you place the order. This rule is also why market timers cannot exploit mutual funds the way they once tried to in 2003.