Note that if you haven’t used Data Analysis before, you need to make sure that the “ Analysis ToolPak“, which is an Excel add-in, is enabled. To plot a histogram in Excel, you need to go to the “ Data” tab and then click on the “ Data Analysis” box. We will be working with the monthly returns of two US stocks: Microsoft (MSFT) and Kellogg (K).

Moreover, we will explain how to interpret a histogram of stock returns. In this tutorial, we will teach you how to create a histogram using Excel.

An easy way to visualize the distribution of stock returns is to plot a histogram.