Shares outstanding are all the shares of a

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

that have been authorized, issued and purchased by investors and are held by them. They are distinguished from

treasury shares A treasury stock or reacquired stock is Share capital, stock which is bought back by the issuing company, reducing the amount of outstanding stock on the open market ("open market" including insiders' holdings). Share repurchase, Stock repurcha ...

, which are shares held by the corporation itself, thus representing no exercisable rights. Shares outstanding and treasury shares together amount to the number of

issued shares In finance and law, issued shares are the shares of a corporation which have been allocated (allotted) and are subsequently held by shareholders. The act of creating new issued shares is called ''issuance''. Allotment is simply the transfer of sha ...

. Shares outstanding can be calculated as either basic or fully diluted. The basic count is the current number of shares.

Dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-i ...

distributions and voting in the general meeting of shareholders are calculated according to this number. The fully diluted shares outstanding count, on the other hand, includes diluting securities, such as warrants,

capital note {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) Capital notes are several types of securities. "Capital note" has a number of meanings, as it can be either an equity security, a debt security or a form of security used in structured financ ...

s or

convertibles A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

. If the company has any diluting securities, this indicates the potential future increased number of shares outstanding.

Finding the number of shares outstanding

The number of outstanding shares may change due to changes in the number of issued shares, as well as the change in treasury shares. Both can occur at any time of the year. There are several useful public sources to find the number of shares outstanding of a given corporation.

Public traded companies' investor relations

The financial reporting obligation of the publicly traded company also ensures the publication of issued and outstanding shares. The reports are usually available in the investor relations section of the company's website. Web directories are supporting direct access to company websites. Publicly traded companies bundle the reports in the investor relations section, e.g.

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

, Eni S.p.a.,

AB InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters ...

, EDP - Energias do Brasil SA or Accor SA.

Authorized information service

In many countries, there is an information service authorized or provided by the local financial authority which gives access to companies' financial reporting. In the United States, the number of shares outstanding may be obtained from quarterly filings with the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

. Quarterly filings are accessible using the US EDGAR. In Germany, those figures are available using the German company register, the central platform for storage of company data. In the Netherlands, the

Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets ( nl, Autoriteit Financiële Markten) is the financial services regulatory authority for the Netherlands. Its role is comparable to the role of the SEC in the United States. History The Netherl ...

(AFM) provides on its website a register of issued capital. In Italy, the

Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB; Italian Companies and Exchange Commission) is the government authority of Italy responsible for regulating the Italian securities market. This includes the regulation of the Italian stock ex ...

(CONSOB) provides on its website a register of issuers with latest total shares.

Local stock exchanges

Since outstanding shares are an essential detail of publicly traded companies the number can be found on the local stock exchange websites. Beyond stock charts and listed prices, they also provide the companies' number of outstanding shares. Examples include the Brazilian BM&FBOVESPA, the Swiss SIX, the Borsa Italiana and the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ; colloquially known as The Bursa, ) is Israel's only public stock exchange and a public company that has been traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange since August 1, 2019. Legally, the exchange is regulated by ...

(where shares outstanding are termed "Capital Listed for Trading").

References

External links