CommonStockSharesOutstandingEntityCommonStockSharesOutstandingCommonStockSharesIssuedShares outstanding is the number of a company's common shares currently held by investors, including insiders and institutions, as of a specific date. It equals the shares the company has issued minus any it has bought back and holds in treasury.
Shares outstanding is a point-in-time count. It differs from the weighted-average share count used in earnings per share, which averages the number outstanding across a reporting period.
Regulation S-X Rule 5-02.29 requires companies to state, for each class of common stock, the number of shares issued or outstanding on the face of the balance sheet, along with the number authorized. In XBRL the balance sheet figure is tagged CommonStockSharesOutstanding, and the issued count, which still includes treasury shares, is CommonStockSharesIssued. Separately, the cover page of each 10-K and 10-Q reports shares outstanding for each class as of a recent date shortly before filing, tagged EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding. That cover-page count is usually more current than the balance-sheet figure.
Companies with more than one class of common stock, such as those with separate voting and non-voting shares, report each class separately, and the classes must be added together for a total. Authorized shares are the ceiling set in the corporate charter and have no bearing on the count. Outstanding shares also exclude unexercised stock options, unvested restricted stock units, warrants, and convertible securities. Those potential shares matter for diluted EPS and diluted market capitalization, but they are not yet outstanding.
Shares outstanding converts company-level figures into per-share figures and, multiplied by the share price, produces market capitalization. Tracking the count over several years shows whether buybacks are shrinking it or stock compensation and share issuance are growing it, which directly affects each shareholder's ownership stake. Remember to adjust earlier counts for stock splits before comparing.
A: Issued shares are all the shares a company has ever issued and not retired. Outstanding shares exclude those it has repurchased and holds as treasury stock, so outstanding is equal to or lower than issued.
A: Earnings are generated over the whole period, while the share count can change during it. EPS uses the weighted average number of shares outstanding over the period so the numerator and denominator cover the same span.
A: On the cover page of the latest 10-K or 10-Q, which reports shares outstanding as of a date close to the filing. The balance sheet shows the count as of the period end.
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