Outstanding shares are the shares that already belong to someone: public investors, staff, founders or institutions. They exclude shares the company has authorised but never issued, and often exclude treasury shares held by the company itself. Market capitalisation is usually share price times outstanding shares.
Key takeaways
- Outstanding shares are the ones investors actually hold.
- EPS and market cap both depend on this count.
- New issues, buybacks and stock splits change the outstanding total.
- Always check the latest figure in filings before running ratio maths.