Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. [2]
Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by the number of common shares outstanding. [3] [4] [5]
Market capitalization is sometimes used to rank the size of companies. It measures only the equity component of a company's capital structure, and does not reflect management's decision as to how much debt (or leverage) is used to finance the firm. A more comprehensive measure of a firm's size is enterprise value (EV), which gives effect to outstanding debt, preferred stock, and other factors. For insurance firms, a value called the embedded value (EV) has been used.
It is also used in ranking the relative size of stock exchanges, being a measure of the sum of the market capitalizations of all companies listed on each stock exchange. The total capitalization of stock markets or economic regions may be compared with other economic indicators (e.g. the Buffett indicator). The total market capitalization of all publicly traded companies in 2023 was approximately US$111 trillion. [6]
Total market capitalization of all publicly traded companies in the world from 1975 to 2020. [7]
| Year | World market cap (in mil. US$) | World market cap (% of GDP) | Number of listed companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 1,149,245 | 27.2 | 14,577 |
| 1980 | 2,525,736 | 29.6 | 17,273 |
| 1985 | 4,684,978 | 47.0 | 20,555 |
| 1990 | 9,519,107 | 50.8 | 23,732 |
| 1991 | 11,340,785 | 56.8 | 24,666 |
| 1992 | 10,819,256 | 50.2 | 24,947 |
| 1993 | 13,897,390 | 61.7 | 28,300 |
| 1994 | 14,639,924 | 60.9 | 30,290 |
| 1995 | 17,263,728 | 64.0 | 33,379 |
| 1996 | 19,806,691 | 72.3 | 35,617 |
| 1997 | 22,029,761 | 80.7 | 36,946 |
| 1998 | 24,555,201 | 89.6 | 37,928 |
| 1999 | 33,181,159 | 115.1 | 38,414 |
| 2000 | 30,925,434 | 101.1 | 39,892 |
| 2001 | 26,792,162 | 88.4 | 40,157 |
| 2002 | 22,802,792 | 72.7 | 38,894 |
| 2003 | 31,107,425 | 84.9 | 41,051 |
| 2004 | 36,540,980 | 89.2 | 38,724 |
| 2005 | 40,512,446 | 92.6 | 39,096 |
| 2006 | 50,074,966 | 106.1 | 43,104 |
| 2007 | 60,456,082 | 114.0 | 44,034 |
| 2008 | 32,418,516 | 56.2 | 43,949 |
| 2009 | 47,471,293 | 83.8 | 42,669 |
| 2010 | 54,259,518 | 87.3 | 43,427 |
| 2011 | 47,521,341 | 68.8 | 44,323 |
| 2012 | 54,503,237 | 78.4 | 43,772 |
| 2013 | 64,367,842 | 89.0 | 44,853 |
| 2014 | 67,177,254 | 90.3 | 45,743 |
| 2015 | 62,268,184 | 94.5 | 43,983 |
| 2016 | 65,117,714 | 97.1 | 43,806 |
| 2017 | 79,501,948 | 111.1 | 43,440 |
| 2018 | 68,893,044 | 91.9 | 43,554 |
| 2019 | 78,825,583 | 108.4 | 43,248 |
| 2020 | 93,686,226 | 134.7 |
Market cap is given by the formula , where MC is the market capitalization, N is the number of common shares outstanding, and P is the market price per common share. [8]
For example, if a company has 4 million common shares outstanding and the closing price per share is $20, its market capitalization is then $80 million. If the closing price per share rises to $21, the market cap becomes $84 million. If it drops to $19 per share, the market cap falls to $76 million. This is in contrast to mercantile pricing where purchase price, average price and sale price may differ due to transaction costs.
Not all of the outstanding shares trade on the open market. The number of shares trading on the open market is called the float. It is equal to or less than N because N includes shares that are restricted from trading. The free-float market cap uses just the floating number of shares in the calculation, generally resulting in a smaller number.
Traditionally, companies were divided into large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap. [9] [4] The terms mega-cap and micro-cap have since come into common use, [10] [11] and nano-cap is sometimes heard. Large caps have a slow growth rate as compared to small caps. [2] Different numbers are used by different indexes; [12] there is no official definition of, or full consensus agreement about, the exact cutoff values. The cutoffs may be defined as percentiles rather than in nominal dollars. The definitions expressed in nominal dollars need to be adjusted over decades due to inflation, population change, and overall market valuation (for example, $1 billion was a large market cap in 1950, but it is not very large now), and market caps are likely to be different country to country.
The price–earnings ratio, also known as P/E ratio, P/E, or PER, is the ratio of a company's share (stock) price to the company's earnings per share. The ratio is used for valuing companies and to find out whether they are overvalued or undervalued.
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public company can be listed on a stock exchange, which facilitates the trade of shares, or not. In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. In most cases, public companies are private enterprises in the private sector, and "public" emphasizes their reporting and trading on the public markets.
A stock split or stock divide increases the number of shares in a company. For example, after a 2-for-1 split, each investor will own double the number of shares, and each share will be worth half as much. A stock split causes a decrease of market price of individual shares, but does not change the total market capitalization of the company: stock dilution does not occur.
"Pre-money valuation" is a term widely used in the private equity and venture capital industries. It refers to the valuation of a company or asset prior to an investment or financing. If an investment adds cash to a company, the company will have a valuation after the investment that is equal to the pre-money valuation plus the cash amount. That is, the pre-money valuation refers to the company's valuation before the investment. It is used by equity investors in the primary market, such as venture capitalists, private equity investors, corporate investors and angel investors. They may use it to determine how much equity they should be issued in return for their investment in the company. This is calculated on a fully diluted basis. For example, all warrants and options issued are taken into account.
A treasury stock or reacquired stock is stock which is bought back by the issuing company, reducing the amount of outstanding stock on the open market.
Stock valuation is the method of calculating theoretical values of companies and their stocks. The main use of these methods is to predict future market prices, or more generally, potential market prices, and thus to profit from price movement – stocks that are judged undervalued are bought, while stocks that are judged overvalued are sold, in the expectation that undervalued stocks will overall rise in value, while overvalued stocks will generally decrease in value. A target price is a price at which an analyst believes a stock to be fairly valued relative to its projected and historical earnings.
Penny stocks are common shares of small public companies that trade for less than five dollars per share. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uses the term "Penny stock" to refer to a security, a financial instrument which represents a given financial value, issued by small public companies that trade at less than $5 per share. Penny stocks are priced over-the-counter, rather than on the trading floor. The term "penny stock" refers to shares that, prior to the SEC's classification, traded for "pennies on the dollar". In 1934, when the United States government passed the Securities Exchange Act to regulate any and all transactions of securities between parties which are "not the original issuer", the SEC at the time disclosed that equity securities which trade for less than $5 per share could not be listed on any national stock exchange or index.
Enterprise value (EV), total enterprise value (TEV), or firm value (FV) is an economic measure reflecting the market value of a business. It is a sum of claims by all claimants: creditors and shareholders. Enterprise value is one of the fundamental metrics used in business valuation, financial analysis, accounting, portfolio analysis, and risk analysis.
The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index, or more simply the Wilshire 5000, is a market-capitalization-weighted index of the market value of all American stocks actively traded in the United States. As of December 31, 2023, the index contained 3,403 components. The index is intended to measure the performance of most publicly traded companies headquartered in the United States, with readily available price data. Hence, the index includes a majority of the common stocks and REITs traded primarily through New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, or the American Stock Exchange. Limited partnerships and ADRs are not included. It can be tracked by following the ticker ^FTW5000.
A rights issue or rights offer is a dividend of subscription rights to buy additional securities in a company made to the company's existing security holders. When the rights are for equity securities, such as shares, in a public company, it can be a non-dilutive pro rata way to raise capital. Rights issues are typically sold via a prospectus or prospectus supplement. With the issued rights, existing security-holders have the privilege to buy a specified number of new securities from the issuer at a specified price within a subscription period. In a public company, a rights issue is a form of public offering.
Stock dilution, also known as equity dilution, is the decrease in existing shareholders' ownership percentage of a company as a result of the company issuing new equity. New equity increases the total shares outstanding which has a dilutive effect on the ownership percentage of existing shareholders. This increase in the number of shares outstanding can result from a primary market offering, employees exercising stock options, or by issuance or conversion of convertible bonds, preferred shares or warrants into stock. This dilution can shift fundamental positions of the stock such as ownership percentage, voting control, earnings per share, and the value of individual shares.
The price/cash flow ratio, is a ratio used to compare a company's market value to its cash flow. It is calculated by dividing the company's market cap by the company's operating cash flow in the most recent fiscal year ; or, equivalently, divide the per-share stock price by the per-share operating cash flow. In theory, the lower a stock's price/cash flow ratio is, the better value that stock is.
A capitalization-weightedindex, also called a market-value-weighted index is a stock market index whose components are weighted according to the total market value of their outstanding shares. Every day an individual stock's price changes and thereby changes a stock index's value. The impact that individual stock's price change has on the index is proportional to the company's overall market value, in a capitalization-weighted index. In other types of indices, different ratios are used.
Share repurchase, also known as share buyback or stock buyback, is the reacquisition by a company of its own shares. It represents an alternate and more flexible way of returning money to shareholders. Repurchases allow stockholders to delay taxes which they would have been required to pay on dividends in the year the dividends are paid, to instead pay taxes on the capital gains they receive when they sell the stock, whose price is now proportionally higher because of the smaller number of shares outstanding.
The S&P/ASX 300, or simply, ASX 300, is a stock market index of Australian stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The index is market-capitalisation weighted, meaning each company included is in proportion to the indexes total market value, and float-adjusted, meaning the index only considers shares available to public investors.
In the context of stock markets, the public float or free float represents the portion of shares of a corporation that are in the hands of public investors as opposed to locked-in shares held by promoters, company officers, controlling-interest investors, or governments. This number is sometimes seen as a better way of calculating market capitalization, because it provides a more accurate reflection of what public investors consider the company to be worth. In this context, the float may refer to all the shares outstanding that can be publicly traded.
In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.
The price-to-book ratio, or P/B ratio, is a financial ratio used to compare a company's current market value to its book value. The calculation can be performed in two ways, but the result should be the same. In the first way, the company's market capitalization can be divided by the company's total book value from its balance sheet. The second way, using per-share values, is to divide the company's current share price by the book value per share. It is also known as the market-to-book ratio and the price-to-equity ratio, and its inverse is called the book-to-market ratio.
A share price is the price of a single share of a number of saleable equity shares of a company. In layman's terms, the stock price is the highest amount someone is willing to pay for the stock, or the lowest amount that it can be bought for.
The net current asset value (NCAV) is a financial metric popularized by Benjamin Graham in his 1934 book Security Analysis. NCAV is calculated by subtracting a company's total liabilities from its current assets. Graham suggested a value investing strategy of buying a well-diversified portfolio of stocks that have a net current asset value greater than their market cap. This strategy is sometimes referred to as "cigar-butt" investing, because it tends to focus on struggling companies that are trading below their liquidation value.
