Issued Outstanding Securities

‘Issued shares’ are the total shares issued by a company. These shares are held by its shareholders and investors as well as large institutions.
‘Outstanding shares’ are referred to Issued shares without including the ‘Treasury shares’.
A company places some shares in reserve for its future use and may add shares to this reserve through ‘buybacks’. These shares are known as ‘Treasury Shares’. A company’s Outstanding shares are arrived at by subtracting the Treasury shares from Issued shares.

Differences between Issued and Outstanding shares

Some differences between Issued and Outstanding shares are:
1. Issued shares are the total shares issued by the company, whereas outstanding shares are the shares with the shareholders, without including the shares repurchased by the company.
2. Issued shares include shares held in treasury, while outstanding shares do not include treasury stock.
3. The number of outstanding shares are used to calculate the Earnings per Share (EPS), while Issued shares do not give a true picture of a company’s financial health.
4. The outstanding shares are less than or equal to Issued shares. These cannot be more than issued shares but can be equivalent to them when there is no treasury stock.