Weighted Average Shs Outstanding

The number of a company's outstanding shares of stock, weighted by the amount of time each share was outstanding.

Weighted Average Shares Outstanding (WASO) is a financial metric used to determine the average number of outstanding shares of a company over a given period of time. This metric is used in the calculation of various financial ratios, including earnings per share (EPS) and price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. The number of outstanding shares of a company can vary over time due to factors such as stock issuances or repurchases. The weighted average calculation takes into account the changes in outstanding shares over time, giving more weight to periods with a higher number of outstanding shares. For example, if a company had 1 million shares outstanding for the first six months of the year and 2 million shares outstanding for the second six months, the weighted average shares outstanding would be 1.5 million ((1 million x 6 months) + (2 million x 6 months))/12 months.