As of January 27th 2014
Share Structure
| Market Value1 |
$10,744,316 |
a/o Jan 24, 2014 |
| Shares Outstanding |
1,193,812,911 |
a/o Nov 01, 2012 |
| Float |
108,553,765 |
a/o Nov 01, 2012 |
| Authorized Shares |
4,500,000,000 |
a/o Nov 01, 2012 |
| Par Value |
No Par Value |
|
Authorized Shares
Authourzed Shares: refer to the largest number of shares that a single corporation can issue. The number of authorized shares per company is assessed at the company's creation and can only be increased or decreased through shareholders' vote. If at the time of incorporation the documents state that 100 shares are authorized, then only 100 shares can be issued.
But just because a company can issue a certain number of shares doesn't mean it will issue all of them to the public. Typically companies will, for many reasons, keep a portion of the shares in their own treasury. For example, company XYZ may decide to maintain a controlling interest within the treasury just to ward off any hostile take over bids. On the other hand, the company may have shares handy in case it wants to sell them for excess cash (rather than borrowing). This tendency of a company to reserve some of its authorized shares leads us to the next important and related term: outstanding shares.
The number of authorized shares is useful information for company management, but has no relevance for investors. You cannot access authorized shares until they start trading. A company may apply for an increase to its authorized stock if it needs to raise additional capital either for operations or for strategic acquisitions. The outstanding share count changes when a company issues new shares or repurchases existing shares. These changes can affect the stock price and thus the value of investment portfolios. For example, if a company issues new shares to pay off long-term debts or to raise funds for building new stores, investors might bid up the stock price in expectation of higher profits.
Outstanding Shares
Not to be confused with authorized shares, outstanding shares refer to the number of stocks that a company actually has issued. This number represents all the shares that can be bought and sold by the public, as well as all the restricted shares that require special permission before being transacted. As we already explained, shares that can be freely bought and sold by public investors are called the float. This value changes depending on whether the company wishes to repurchase shares from the market or sell out more of its authorized shares from within its treasury.
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