Market capitalization

Value of a corporation as determined by the market price of its issued and outstanding securities. It is calculated by multiplying the number of outstanding shares by the current market price of a share.

Market capitalization is a measure of the value of a company, calculated by multiplying the number of either the outstanding shares or the floating shares by the current price per share.

For example, a company with 100 million shares of floating stock that has a current market value of $25 a share would have a market capitalization of $2.5 billion.

Outstanding shares include all the stock held by shareholders, while floating shares are those outstanding shares that actually are available to trade.

Market capitalization, or cap, is one of the criteria investors use to choose a varied portfolio of stocks, which are often categorized as small-, mid-, and large-cap. Generally, large-cap stocks are considered the least volatile, and small caps the most volatile.

The term market capitalization is sometimes used interchangeably with market value, in explaining, for example, how a particular index is weighted or where a company stands in relation to other companies.

A measure of company size that is computed as current market price per share of stock times the total number of shares outstanding.