To: Dave Shoe who wrote (2072 ) 11/9/1998 2:56:00 AM From: gambler Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Three common terms you will see on financial statements are:Shares authorized- the number of shares a company is able to issue outlined in its bylaws. A vote usually needs to take place in order to increase this number. Companies rarely issue the number of shares they are authorized. Most authorize 100 million when they begin. Shares issued- the number of shares a company has issued out of what they are able to issue (shares authorized). This is essentially how many shares the company at one time sold to the public, management or insiders (more than 5% ownership in the company). Shares outstanding- the number of shares that are currently outstanding to shareholders (management, private, insiders or institutional investors). Most companies also require a vote to increase this number. For example a vote to offer a 1 share dividend for every 1 share of stock outstanding (aka 2 for 1 split)Float - the float is the number of outstanding shares not held by insiders or management. Essentially the number of shares freely tradable on a daily basis without filing a Form 144 to do so.Here is an example from MSFT's most recent balance sheet: Here is IBM's most recent balance sheet showing Treasury Stock also: (Ignore the preferred stock, that isn't part of this explanation)Common stock - par value $.50 per share Treasury stock - at cost
