Authorized shares is a pretty much irrelevant number. Companies typically have millions more shares of common stock authorized than they have actually issued t

Authorized shares is a pretty much irrelevant number. Companies typically have millions more shares of common stock authorized than they have actually issued to anyone. The relevant number is the number of shares actually issued and outstanding. You might also care about how many options have been issued and could in theory become outstanding shares, so in that case you'd want what is called the total fully diluted number of shares.