Annualized

The term annualized refers to a process by which data from periods of less than a year are extended to 12-month periods.

Learn to Recognize Annualization
Numbers with terms of less than a year are annualized often for convenience. The impacts of compounding on the yield under consideration will also be taken into account by the annualization process. To evaluate the economic value of a commodity, security, or business, annualizing is a useful tool.
When a figure is annualized, it is extrapolated to the following twelve months based on its performance over the past few months. Some typical applications of annualizing are provided below.

Results in Business
Similar to how a company's financial performance can be predicted from its present financial data, or run rate, an annualized return can be calculated and used to analyze the company's future performance. The run rate is an extrapolation of the present financial performance based on the assumption that the current conditions would persist.

Loans
APRs are commonly used to express the yearly cost of various loan packages (APR). The annual percentage rate (APR) is a rate expressed as a percentage of the loan's principal balance that factors in all finance charges, including interest and origination fees.
Short-term financing interest rates can also be annualized. Payday loans and vehicle title loans, two common types of short-term unsecured loans, charge borrowers a fixed finance fee of $15 to $20 for the privilege of borrowing a little sum for a period of two weeks to a month. At first glance, $20 may not seem like a lot of money for a single month's service. The annualized cost is $240, which is high in comparison to the loan amount.

As Required By Law
By converting a tax period shorter than a full year to an annual term, taxpayers can save on their taxes. Wage earners can use the conversion to better prepare their taxes and deal with any consequences.
By way of illustration, taxpayers can calculate their annualized income by multiplying their monthly income by 12. Budgeting for quarterly tax payments can be simplified by annualizing revenue and estimating the effective tax rate using that number.

Investing is a Good Example
Annualization of investments is a common practice. Supposing a stock's monthly simple (i.e., not compounded) capital gains return was 1%. Since there are 12 months in a year, the annualized rate of return is 12%. That is, you take the rate of return over a shorter time frame and multiply it by the total number of periods in a year. In the case of a monthly yield, you would increase that figure by 12.
To illustrate, imagine an investment returned 1% in a week. It would take 52 weeks to earn 1% annually, therefore we would multiply 1% by 52. You may expect a return of 52% each year.
In order to make meaningful comparisons, quarterly returns are generally annualized. You could get a 5% return on your investment in stocks or bonds during the first quarter. To convert this return to an annual rate, we would multiply 5% by the number of quarters in a year. Since there are four quarters in a year, the investment would generate an annualized return of 20% (5%) (50% * 4 = 20%).

Annualizing: Some Caveats and Constraints
The forecasted rate of return or annualized rate is not guaranteed and is subject to fluctuate based on external factors and market conditions. If an investment generates 1% in a single month, that would amount to a 12% return on investment (ROI) over the course of a year. However, it is not possible to reliably predict the annualized return of a stock by looking only at its short-term performance.
A stock's price may fluctuate during the year depending on a number of factors, including the general economic climate, the strength of the company's finances, and the volatility of the market. For this reason, the original yearly projection would have been off due to swings in the stock price. A stock's return could be 1% in the first month and -3% in the second.