The number of authorized shares that is sold to and held by the shareholders of a company, regardless of whether they are insiders, institutional investors or the general public. Also known as "issued stock". Taobiz explains Issued Shares Issued shares include the stock that a company sells publicly in order to generate capital and the stock given to insiders as part of their compensation packages. Unlike shares that are held as treasury stock, shares that have been retired are not included in this figure. The amount of issued shares can be all or part of the total amount of authorized shares of a corporation. The total number of issued shares outstanding in a company is most often shown in the annual report.