Outstanding shares

Outstanding shares

Shares that are currently owned by investors.

Shares Outstanding

The number of shares an issuing entity, such as a publicly-traded company, has not repurchased and that are available for trade by the general public. This is sometimes known as collection float or float.

Outstanding shares.

The shares of stock that a corporation has issued and not reacquired are described as its outstanding shares. Some of but not all these shares are available for trading in the marketplace.

A corporation's market capitalization is figured by multiplying its outstanding shares by the market price of one share. The number of outstanding shares is often used to derive much of the financial information that's provided on a per-share basis, such as earnings per share or sales per share.

However, some analysts prefer to use floating shares rather than outstanding shares in calculating market cap and various ratios.

Floating shares are the outstanding shares that are available for trading as opposed to those held by founding partners, in pension funds, employee stock ownership plans (ESOP), and similar programs.