Total Number of shares

Total Number of shares is also called share capital. A company has a certain number of authorized shares of common or preferred stock which it can issue as per the company’s memorandum. However, the company might not issue all these shares. Total number of shares refers to this number which the company has issued and is available for public participation.

How to check for total number of shares?

The number of shares in a company can be calculated by checking the stock’s market capitalization. A simple calculation is to divide the total market capitalization with its share price. However this will not necessarily give the actual number of shares because market capitalisation generally includes only the outstanding shares of a company. It will not include shares which have been issued but are not outstanding, such as treasury stock and shares held by HNIs or even by the Directors or management of the company. The stocks at par value can also be checked from the balance sheet to calculate the issued shares.