Issued shares

Issued shares is a term of law and finance for the quantity of shares of a corporation, which have been allocated (allotted) and are subsequently held by shareholders. The act of creating new issued shares is called issuance, allocation or allotment. Allotment is simply the creation of shares and their transfer to a subscriber. After allotment, a subscriber becomes a shareholder. The number of issued shares is a subset of the total authorized shares. It is that amount which the board of directors and/or shareholders have agreed to allocate. Issued shares are the sum of outstanding shares and treasury shares.