Although it's much easier to find a company's number of outstanding shares of stock on the financial summary, you can also figure this out by looking at the company's income statement. Not all businesses use the same name for the income statement. Some might call it the profit and loss statement, statement of operations or statement of income. The number of outstanding shares of a particular stock is the number of shares purchased by the public. Knowing a business's outstanding stock is important when considering an investment.
Step 1
Find the company's net income, which is located toward the bottom of the income statement. Net income is revenue minus interest, taxes, depreciation, cost of sales, direct labor and any other cost required to run the business.
Step 2
Look for the earnings per share. Typically, you can find earnings per share on the very bottom of the income statement. The statement might also list diluted earnings per share, but focus on just the basic earnings.
Step 3
Divide the company's net income by the earnings per share to find the number of outstanding shares. For example, in 2011, XYZ business reported $41,060,000 in net income and basic earnings per share of $8.43. The number of outstanding shares of stock was 41,060,000 divided by $8.43, which is 4,870,670.
