What does shares outstanding Mean?

Shares outstanding tell you how many shares a company has issued that are still owned by shareholders. This amount will fluctuate over time. Shares outstanding will either increase if a company decides to issue additional shares or decrease due to a share repurchase (which means the company has bought back its shares).

What is an example of an outstanding number of shares?

The outstanding number of shares may be either equal to or less than the number of authorized shares. For example, a company might authorize 10 million shares to be created for its IPO, but end up actually only issuing nine million of the shares.

What is the difference between outstanding and issued shares?

A company's number of shares outstanding is the number of shares investors and company executives currently own, while the number of issued shares is the number of shares that have ever been traded in the stock market. A company's number of issued shares includes any shares the company has bought back and now holds in its treasury.