
Above, the weightings have also been calculated and added to the basic shares number to calculate the WASO. Understanding how to calculate and adjust these figures ensures transparency and consistency in financial statements. When making a weighted average calculation, one computes an average of several numbers by assigning a suitable weight to each unit number to make it an equivalent contributor to its total.
How to find the Total Number of Outstanding Shares of the Company?
Outstanding shares of stock is the kind of stock issued by the company that is owned by investors, rather than by corporations themselves. Click the “Calculate Weighted Average” button, which will display the total days, ending shares, and weighted average. The results will also include a printable period-by-period chart showing how the weighted average was computed. Public companies are required to report their number of shares outstanding in their quarterly and annual disclosures to the Securities & Exchange Commission. Stock prices change constantly, making it difficult to keep track of the cost basis of shares acquired over time. The below table shows the weighted averages shares outstanding calculation in a tabular format.
Basic Shares Outstanding Vs. Diluted Shares Outstanding
A company may have 100 million shares outstanding, but if 95 million of these shares are held by insiders and institutions, the float of only five million may constrain the stock’s liquidity. Let us see how the weighted average number of shares outstanding will change. Average shares outstanding information is only reported by publicly-held companies; it real estate cash flow is not necessary to report this information for privately-held, governmental, or nonprofit entities. It is never used for internal reporting by any entity, since management does not require per-share information for internal reports.
How to Derive Outstanding Shares

Let us assume an example to see how these shares result in a decrease in the shareholding percentage before issuing such shares. Suppose the company has 10,000 outstanding shares issued to 100 shareholders. Outstanding diluted shares count and diluted earnings per share only public companies report and not any private companies. Diluted earnings per share are the more conservative number, considering the worst possible how to find shares outstanding scenario. To calculate this weighted average, first input the two values for the number of shares outstanding into adjacent cells.

Earnings Per Share (EPS) Formula
- The process of dilution can be through conversion through holders with secondary offerings or optionable securities.
- The figure for number of outstanding shares does not include any treasury stock.
- Master the weighted average common shares formula to enhance your financial analysis and improve earnings per share accuracy.
- As we’ve already seen, the number of a company’s outstanding shares can vary over time, sometimes fluctuating a great deal.
- In a larger corporation, these factors can result in substantial ongoing changes in the number of shares outstanding, making it more difficult to calculate the weighted average of shares outstanding.
For instance, if a company issued 1,000 shares on April 1st, those shares would gross vs net be outstanding for nine months of the year. This means they would be weighted as 1,000 shares multiplied by 9/12, equating to 750 weighted shares. Similarly, if the company repurchased 500 shares on October 1st, those shares would only be outstanding for three months, resulting in a weighting of 500 shares multiplied by 3/12, or 125 weighted shares. Summing these weighted figures provides a more accurate representation of the shares’ impact on financial metrics. The computation of diluted shares outstanding via the weighted average method accounts for all the possible conversions. The diluted EPS so calculated thus always amounts to less than the value of basic EPS.
The company determines the maximum number of shares it can issue, when creating a company. The board of directors or shareholder vote may increase the number of authorized shares. Basic outstanding shares and diluted outstanding shares are two methods for calculating a company’s total number of outstanding shares.

Together, these filings equip stakeholders with the tools to evaluate a company’s financial health and equity structure. Unlike cash dividends, stock dividends increase the share count without changing market capitalization. For example, a 10% stock dividend gives a shareholder with 100 shares an additional 10 shares. This increase in share count must be reflected in the weighted average calculation to avoid distorting financial metrics. According to Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) guidelines, these adjustments are applied retrospectively to all presented periods to ensure consistency. Adjustments for stock splits and dividends are necessary to refine the calculation.
- Ordinary shares (common shares) are the most basic type of stock that a company can issue.
- Publicly traded companies are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to disclose their share count in quarterly and annual filings, such as 10-Q and 10-K reports.
- The shares issued after stock dividend have not been restated because these shares have been issued on new basis and require no adjustment.
- Weighted average shares outstanding is the number of company shares after incorporating changes in the shares during the year.
- The weighted average shares outstanding represents the number of common shares outstanding, after adjusting for the share count changes that occurred throughout a given period.
- The market capitalization, i.e. “equity value”, of a company following a stock split or reverse stock split should be neutral in theory.

Preferred shares take priority over common shares, in terms of asset distributions in the event of bankruptcy. Let’s take a practical example to illustrate the earnings per share formula. Firstly, Add the number of dilutive shares in total or the total number of shares that the company might hold after exercising all its share obligations.
What is Outstanding Shares Formula?
- The primary distinction between issued and outstanding shares is that issued shares comprise both outstanding and treasury shares, whereas outstanding shares solely include shareholder-owned shares.
- The company’s outstanding shares remain in circulation, as the company has neither repurchased, retired, nor removed them from the market.
- Diluted weighted average shares, on the other hand, offer a more comprehensive picture by accounting for all potential shares that could be created through the conversion of these securities.
- Earnings Per Share (EPS) is a financial metric calculated by dividing the Net income by the total number of outstanding common shares.
- WASO is used to calculate the Similar to the calculation of diluted shares outstanding, basic shares outstanding is the starting point for calculating the WASO.
- You can use this Earnings per Share (EPS) Calculator to calculate the earnings per share based on the total net income, preferred dividends paid and the number of outstanding common shares.
The remaining shares increase in value because the same earnings are now distributed among fewer shares when a company repurchases its shares from the market. The number of outstanding shares might change as investors buy and sell these shares. The number of outstanding shares will fall if a company buys back part of its outstanding shares.