The total number of an entity’s shares owned by investors and other holders. This includes its float and restricted shares:
Outstanding shares = float + restricted shares
Float constitutes the total number of shares available to the public (in the secondary market) or that will be made available to the public on initial public offering (IPO), while restricted shares are those extended internally to specific groups (an entity’s staff and employees) as incentives for performance.
Outstanding shares do not include shares that an entity re-purchases from the market.
