Market Capitalization vs Shares Outstanding: What’s the Difference?

Options trading entails significant risk and is not appropriate for all customers. Customers must read and understand the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before engaging in any options trading strategies. Options transactions are often complex and may involve the potential of losing the entire investment in a relatively short period of time. Certain complex options strategies carry additional risk, including the potential for losses that may exceed the original investment amount. A share repurchase program is when a company uses its funds to purchase its shares from investors, reducing the number of shares that it has outstanding. Shares outstanding is also essential for finding popular metrics like earnings per share (EPS), which measures how much of a company’s earnings each share of stock represents.

Because shares outstanding is an input number as opposed to a calculation, it can be used in a variety of calculations in addition to market capitalization.
The term „float” refers to the number of shares available to be traded by the public and excludes any shares held by company executives or the company’s treasury.
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The company can increase or decrease the number of shares outstanding by issuing new shares or via share repurchases (buybacks).
An account balance is the amount of money held in a financial account, such as a checking account, saving account, certificate of deposit, or brokerage account.

You can find the total shares outstanding in a company’s balance sheet. This includes all common stock held by the public as well as restricted shares that belong to the company’s internal management. Stock splits can make it easier for investors to purchase shares in a business. If a company’s shares trade at $1,000, then only investors with $1,000 or more can buy a stock. If the company does a 10-for-1 split, every share is split into 10 new shares, each worth $100.

How Do You Calculate Outstanding Shares?

If the firm institutes a buyback program, purchasing shares from investors, it can reduce the number of shares outstanding. Because the difference between the number of authorized and outstanding shares can be so large, it’s important to realize what they are and which figures the company is using. Different ratios may use the basic number of outstanding shares, while others may use the diluted version. This can affect the numbers significantly and possibly change your attitude toward a particular investment. Furthermore, by identifying the number of restricted shares versus the number of shares in the float, investors can gauge the level of ownership and autonomy that insiders have within the company. All these scenarios are important for investors to understand before they make a decision to buy or sell.

When the number of treasury shares increases, the total for outstanding shares declines, and vice-versa.
The weighted average shares outstanding figure smooths out this variance, by simply averaging the share count across the reporting period.
Shares outstanding and treasury shares together amount to the number of issued shares.
Dividend distributions and voting in the general meeting of shareholders are calculated according to this number.
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A stock split occurs when a business divides its existing shares into multiple new shares.

The number of authorized shares can be changed by way of a vote from shareholders, typically during the annual shareholder meeting. Floating shares serve as a good representation of the company’s active shares or share turnover among various investors in the market, excluding parties holding substantial portions of equity. Changes in shares outstanding over time also reveal how valuable shares are as a stake of ownership in the company, as the number of shares available directly affects this. At the time, GE discussed plans to split into three companies and to divest from many businesses. They determined that reducing their share count from nearly 8.8 billion to roughly 1.1 billion better aligned with this vision (1).

There are also restricted shares, which are part of a company’s authorized shares. The total number of a company’s outstanding shares as seen in the balance sheet is the sum of float and restricted shares. Also referred to as authorized stock or authorized capital stock, there is no limit as to the total number of shares that can be authorized within these documents for a larger company.

A stock’s total outstanding shares help determine its liquidity, or how rapidly shares of that stock can be bought or sold without substantially impacting the price. The number of shares a company has available to trade in the open market is known as its float. To determine a stock’s float, subtract the number of shares that are held by a single party (a company founder, for example) or small group from the total shares outstanding. While outstanding shares of stock are those that can be purchased or sold on the secondary market, treasury shares are those that are held by the company and are not available in the open market.

The Treasury Stock Method Outstanding Shares Formula Copied Copy To Clipboard

This is followed by the number of issued shares and then the number of shares outstanding. Other metrics in which shares outstanding provides useful information include earnings per share (EPS) and cash flow per share (CFPS). In theory, any number can be paired with shares outstanding deferred revenue definition to come up with a per-share valuation. Market capitalization is a calculation where one of the inputs is shares outstanding. Because shares outstanding is an input number as opposed to a calculation, it can be used in a variety of calculations in addition to market capitalization.

Restricted Shares vs. Outstanding Shares

As such, index providers such as S&P and others are market leaders in setting a precedent for calculating floating stock methodologies. Overall, the number of shares outstanding, the metrics you can calculate from it, and related metrics — like the float — provide key insights to investors. Companies can also undergo a reverse stock split or share consolidation.

What are Shares Outstanding?

P/B is often used to value companies in the financial sector (i.e. banks) and is calculated by taking a company’s share price and dividing it by the book value per share. For example, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio calculates how much investors are paying for $1 of a company’s earnings by dividing the company’s share price by its EPS. Shares outstanding are the basis of several key financial metrics and can be useful for tracking a company’s operating performance. It also offered 3,000 shares to each of the two managing directors and has 5,600 treasury shares.

Basic shares outstanding represent the actual number of shares outstanding during a period. Diluted shares outstanding include “dilutive” securities that could add to the share count — including options, warrants, and convertible debt. In other words, the treasury stock method accounts for the cash that will come in from option and warrant exercise, and assumes that the cash received will offset a portion of the shares issued.

Stock dilution includes offerings, warrants, and other convertible derivatives. When these are executed, the number of floating shares increases … and so does the number of shares outstanding. You’ll find the number of common and preferred stock issued under the shareholders’ equity section. Add the preferred shares outstanding to the common shares outstanding to get the total number of issued shares. Treasury stocks are stocks that a business issued and later repurchased from investors. Shares outstanding are used to determine a company’s market capitalization, i.e. the total value of a company’s equity, or equity value.

For instance, restricted shares refer to a company’s issued stock that cannot be bought or sold without special permission by the SEC. Often, this type of stock is given to insiders as part of their salaries or as additional benefits. This refers to a company’s shares that are freely bought and sold without restrictions by the public. Denoting the greatest proportion of stocks trading on the exchanges, the float consists of regular shares that many of us will hear or read about in the news.

When a business wants to raise capital by selling a portion of the company’s ownership, it can issue shares. It comes up with a set number of shares to divide the company into and can sell those shares as it sees fit. The business does not have to sell all of the shares it creates and can retain some.