Calculate the number of shares outstanding of Apple Inc. at the end of the year 2016 if the opening number of issued common stock for the year was 5,578.75 million. The formula for shares outstanding is quite straight and simple and it can be derived by deducting the number of treasury stock from the number of issued stock of the company. The number of outstanding shares refers to the stock of a company that is currently held by all its shareholders, including share blocks held by institutional investors and restricted shares owned by the company’s officers and insiders. The common stock outstanding of a company is simply all of the shares that investors and company insiders own. In the case of Apple, this shows that the company had 15,552,752,000 shares of common stock “issued and outstanding” as of October 20th, 2023.
How to calculate issued and outstanding shares, and why it’s important
Typically, companies repurchase their stock to reduce outstanding shares or because they believe their stocks are undervalued on the market. In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide on how to calculate the number of shares of common stock outstanding. Beyond stock charts and listed prices, they also provide the companies’ number of outstanding shares. The financial reporting obligation of the publicly traded company also ensures the publication of issued and outstanding shares. Penny stock companies probably have more shares outstanding than any other company.
Issued Vs. Outstanding Vs. Authorized
Outstanding shares include share blocks held by institutional investors and restricted shares owned by the company’s officers and insiders. Outstanding shares are the portion of a company’s stock held by all shareholders, including institutional investors, company officers, and insiders. This section provides the sum of the total authorized shares, the total number of shares outstanding, and the total floating shares. The number of authorized shares can be substantially greater than the number of shares outstanding, as authorized shares represent the maximum number of shares a company can issue. Outstanding shares differ from treasury shares, which are the shares held by the company itself and which cannot be sold in the open market.
And it dilutes the value of existing shares. The numbers of these shares can vary widely… A recent example of a reverse stock split is Amcor’s (AMCR) 1-for-5 reverse stock split in January 2026. In December 2025, ServiceNow was trading at almost $800 a share — considerably out of budget for many retail investors.
Check the Company’s Balance Sheet
The number of shares outstanding increases whenever a company undertakes a stock split. Any authorized shares that are held by or sold to a corporation’s shareholders, exclusive of treasury stock held by the company itself, are known as outstanding shares. The number of outstanding shares is not static and may fluctuate over time, as the company splits its shares or buys them back. John, as an investor, would like to calculate the company’s market capitalization and its earnings per share. Additionally, to understand how the difference between issued and outstanding shares affects metrics such as earnings per share and shareholder equity, see our detailed breakdown. 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.
Outstanding shares represent a company’s shares that are held by investors, whether they’re individual, institutional, or insiders. Restricted stock are shares owned by company insiders, employees, and key shareholders that are under temporary restriction, and therefore cannot be traded. Outstanding shares are all the shares of a company’s stock that are held by shareholders. In the above example, if the reporting periods were each half of a year, the resulting weighted average of outstanding shares would be 150,000. Investors can access the figures for outstanding shares from quarterly filings through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States. While the lower number of outstanding shares often hampers liquidity, it could also deter short sellers since it becomes more difficult to borrow shares for short sales.
Basic EPS vs. Diluted EPS: What is the Difference?
While only the securities that are “in-the-money” were included in the past, the more conservative approach of including all (or most of) the dilutive securities is now common practice. Stock warrants, like stock options and SIP grants, fall under a similar category – they are not included in the calculation until exercised. Before deciding to trade foreign exchange or any other financial instrument you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite.
- Options and warrants are one aspect of the difference between basic shares outstanding and diluted shares outstanding.
- When investors research stocks, they often assess a company’s float.
- To provide a fair view of the performance, companies usually compute both Basic and Diluted Shareholding.
- It doesn’t happen overnight — but it’s possible over time.
- And it dilutes the value of existing shares.
- Outstanding shares are the aggregate number of shares that a corporation has issued to investors.
Outstanding Shares: Definition and How to Calculate It
- Since outstanding shares are an essential detail of publicly traded companies the number can be found on the local stock exchange websites.
- In addition, it keeps changing depending upon the company’s new issuance, buyback, or conversion of warrants and other convertible Bonds into common equity.
- In the end, as the number of outstanding shares decreases by 1,000, the company’s EPS increases by 6.89%.
- Often, the number of issued shares is equal to the number of issued and outstanding shares.
- When you buy stock in a company, you are buying an ownership stake, which is issued as a share of stock.
The Board of Directors decided to buy back 1000 shares @ $13 per share on 25th January 2020 (The market Price of Share on that date was $10 per share). Outstanding Shares are the number of shares available after adjusting for any Treasury stock, Preference shares, etc. In negligence vs tax fraud contrast, the company issues a specific number of shares. It is important to note that there are various categories of Shares, such as Authorized Shares, Issued Shares, and Outstanding Shares, although all the company shares differ in terms of purpose. Analysts and regular investors utilize this information to calculate essential financial ratios, including Earnings per Share and Dividends per Share.
In this case, the company may reduce the number of shares outstanding by buying them back and taking them off the open market. A company may have 100 million shares outstanding, but if 95 million are held by insiders and institutions, the float of only five million may constrain the stock’s liquidity. Of course, merely increasing the number of outstanding shares is no guarantee of success; The company has to deliver consistent earnings growth as well.
If the company has any diluting securities, this indicates the potential future increased number of shares outstanding. Shares outstanding and treasury shares together amount to the number of issued shares. Shares outstanding are all the shares of a corporation that have been authorized, issued and purchased by investors and are held by them. But it’s important to look at the number of outstanding shares to know how many more shares could possibly enter the market. The company had roughly 24 million shares outstanding in 2018 and 104 million in 2020. But the number of shares outstanding can be considered good or bad … The more shares a company has, the more the value of the company is spread out.
It also has 10 million stock options outstanding with an exercise price of $5. To account for this ownership, with options and warrants companies use what is called the treasury stock method. Management knows how many shares have been issued; it knows how many shares have been repurchased, if any. In addition, most public companies don’t need to issue more shares, at least in the number required to bump up against the authorized maximum.
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Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Jeff Williams is a full-time day trader with over 15 years experience. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close. So you’ve found a company to invest in.
That means the stock has more potential for huge price swings. So to me, the fewer the shares, the better. And that can tell you a lot about a company’s potential success. It can help you see if insiders are selling when their shares become unrestricted or if they’re holding. Stocks with a low float tend to be more volatile since there are fewer shares to go around.
When a company creates more shares, those shares become part of the shares outstanding. Outstanding shares are the total number of a company’s shares. What’s the difference between outstanding shares, issued shares, and float? The shares outstanding metric is foundational for investors. The shares available to investors on the open market are commonly called the float. The float is the portion of outstanding shares that’s most relevant for smaller investors.
The number of shares outstanding is not hard to calculate, but you should not underestimate the importance of this figure. – The number of treasury stock (shares repurchased by the company) This information is crucial for both investors and company management to evaluate market capitalization, ownership distribution, and the potential for issuing new shares.