Shares Outstanding

Browse all terms in Glossary

Definition

The volume of stock shares issued by the company and in the hands of the public. This number entails how much is being traded in the open market. A decreasing shares outstanding over time may be the result of company buybacks. Companies frequently make stock buybacks and retire those buybacks as treasury stock.

Shares outstanding represents a company's market value spread across the amount of shares outstanding. The amount of shares outstanding is frequently used in ratios such as Earnings Per Share.

Related Terms

Authorized Stock, Book Value per Share, Earnings per Share, Market Capitalization, Revenue Per Share, Split, Stock, Stock Buybacks, Tangible Book Value Per Share

Register for your Free YCharts Account.

Understand your investments with more data than any other free site.

  • Create watchlists that you care about for stocks or economic indicators
  • Create alerts to track the movements of your stocks
  • Access stock analysis from our in-house experts
Get Started Now

Already registered? Sign in to your account.

document.write('');