QuoteMedia supports two shares outstanding values in our Request API services. These values are added to our QMod component tools as well.
(a) totalsharesoutstanding (Total Shares)
The Total Shares Outstanding (TSO) amount is considered equal to the entity level Shares Outstanding (aka includes shares outstanding based on all instruments for the company). In order to calculate TSO, the Shares outstanding is taken from the Quarterly, Semi-Annual and Annual Financial Statements, as reported to the respective regulatory bodies. Unless it's an ADR where there is a conversion rate, they add up the publicly traded share classes for Total Shares Outstanding (TSO) and also includes (where applicable): privately held (unlisted) shares, Subordinate Voting Shares, Multiple Voting Shares, Restricted voting shares that are issued and outstanding but not listed. Not included in the calculation are: Warrants (.WT), Units and Decompressed Proportional Shares.
(b) shareclasslevelsharesoutstanding (Shares Out. - or - could be referred to as Shares Issued and Outstanding)
The Shares Outstanding amount is considered equal to the instrument level Share Class Level Shares Outstanding (aka includes shares outstanding based solely on the one instrument).
The Shares Out. amount can sometimes be higher than Total Shares Outstanding because it includes both issued and outstanding shares for the instrument whereas Total Shares Outstanding includes outstanding shares only. In addition, Treasury stock consists of shares issued but not outstanding. That is the reason as why they are not included in TSO calculation but instead included in the Share class level value.
Note: Market cap for US and Canadian symbols is calculated based on Total Shares Outstanding for companies that have more than one share class.