Issued Vs. Outstanding Shares - Top 7 Differences

Issued and outstanding shares are two different measures of how many shares a company holds. Issued shares refer to all the stock a company has issued, while outstanding shares refer to the shares owned by investors after deducting the shares repurchased by the company. This article aims to shed light on what issued shares and outstanding shares mean and issued vs. outstanding shares.

What Are Issued Shares?

The total shares issued by a company to shareholders or the general public are known as issued shares. These shares are distributed to investors in exchange for money to raise funds or as a reward to employees or suppliers. Shares kept in 'treasury stocks' are included in issued shares. The company can use these for future sales or buying new business. An investor may sell their shares to another investor on the secondary market after the corporation has issued them once. To sum up, issued shares include both outstanding shares and treasury shares.

Issued shares = Shares Outstanding + Treasury Shares

What Are Outstanding Shares?

All corporation shares that have been approved, issued, and purchased by investors and are now held by them are referred to as outstanding shares. These are the total number of shares of a company's stock bought by investors. Outstanding shares include all the shares owned by stockholders, investors, company officials, insiders, retail investors, etc., but do not include shares in treasury stock. Treasury stock means shares that are repurchased from shareholders, but the company didn’t retire those shares. The number of issued shares are shown on the company's financial statements <http://The number of issued shares is shown on the company's balance sheet as capital stock, also known as owners' equity.> as capital stock or owners' equity on the balance sheet.

To sum up, outstanding share includes total issued shares, excluding treasury shares.

Outstanding shares = Issued Shared - Treasury Shares

Issued vs. Outstanding Shares

Conclusion

Issued shares refer to all the stock a company has issued, while outstanding shares refer to the stock owned by investors. Issued shares increase when companies issue new stock or give employees stock options. Conversely, outstanding shares decrease when a company repurchases its stock and increase when a company pays dividends to shareholders.