
The 5 highest Free Float Stocks in the Market
Ticker | Name | Free Float | Stock Rank ™ |
ASX:MMM | Marley Spoon AG | 26287.68 | 24 |
ASQ:NEN | New England Realty Associates LP | 1097.93 | 40 |
ASX:CRN | Coronado Global Resources Inc | 990 | 98 |
NSQ:DOYU | Douyu International Holdings | 939.76 | 46 |
Full Answer
What is free float market capitalization?
Free Float = Outstanding Shares – Locked-in shares Let’s see how it works in an example. A company has 5 million shares outstanding in total, with 1 million of them in a locked-in position, held by the CTO and CEO of the company. Therefore, according to the formula above, the free float of the company is 4 million shares.
What is free float stocks?
May 25, 2010 · Floating stock is the number of shares available for trading of a particular stock. Low float stocks are those with a low number of shares. Floating stock is calculated by subtracting closely-held...
What is free float shares?
Jan 11, 2021 · What Is Stock Float? It’s the number of outstanding shares a company issues minus restricted shares. Insiders, like company directors and executives, get special access to restricted shares. After that, the rest of the shares become available to public investors. The public float is traded by institutions and retail traders like you and me.
What is a free float share?
Oct 07, 2020 · Free float is generally described as all shares held by investors, other than restricted shares held by company insiders. It does not include restricted shares, which are owned by company management, officers and other various insiders because it's assumed that those shares are being held on a very long-term basis.

What is free float?
Also known as public float, a free float refers to the number of a company's outstanding shares owned by public investors, excluding locked-in shares held by company managers and officers, controlling-interest investors, governments and other private parties.
Why are stocks with a smaller free float more volatile?
On the other hand, stocks with a smaller free float tend to be more volatile, showing limited liquidity and a wider bid-ask spread, due to the limited number of shares available for trading. Typically, institutional investors choose to invest in stocks with a larger free float, as they can trade a substantial number of shares without making ...
How to calculate free float?
Generally, when calculating the size of a free float of a partially privatised company, the large holdings of the company’s managers, founding shareholders and governments are excluded. Therefore, free float is computed by subtracting the locked-in shares from outstanding shares.
How does free floating work?
Free floating allows companies to gain access to new capital sources by enabling public investors to put their money into the business. This capital can then be used to expand and develop the business, as well as increase the company's profits.
How can a company increase its free float?
For instance, a company can increase its free float by conducting a stock split or selling shares in a secondary offering. When restricted shares become unrestricted after following a certain procedure, they can also increase the free float by adding more public shares to the market.
What is low float stock?
Low float stocks are those with a low number of shares. Floating stock is calculated by subtracting closely-held shares and restricted stock from a firm’s total outstanding shares. Closely-held shares are those owned by insiders, major shareholders, and employees. Restricted stock refers to insider shares that cannot be traded because ...
What happens to floating stock when restricted shares become available?
If restricted or closely-held shares become available, then the floating stock will also increase. On the flip side, if a company decides to implement a share buyback, then the number of outstanding shares will decrease.
How to calculate float?
To calculate a company's floating stock, subtract its restricted stock and closely held shares from its total number of outstanding shares. Floating stock will change over time as new shares may be issued, shares may be bought back, or insiders or major shareholders may buy or sell the stock. Low float stocks tend to have higher spreads ...
Why is float important?
A company's float is an important number for investors because it indicates how many shares are actually available to be bought and sold by the general investing public. Low float is typically an impediment to active trading. This lack of trading activity can make it difficult for investors to enter ...
Why are stocks volatile?
This is because, with fewer shares available, it may be harder to find a buyer or seller. This results in larger spreads and often lower volume.
What happens if you buy large blocks of stock?
If they invest in companies with a big float, their large purchases will not impact the share price as much.
Do institutions hold stock forever?
It is important to note that institutions don't hold a stock forever. The institutional ownership number will change regularly, although not always by a significant percentage. Falling institutional ownership coupled with a falling share price could signal that institutions are dumping the shares.
What is float in stock market?
The float is the number of available shares in the public market . Remove restricted shares from the equation and you end up with the stock float. Who’s in control of the shares can ebb and flow over time. Sometimes it’s the insiders, and sometimes it’s the institutional investors or retail traders.
Why do stocks float?
Stock float allows companies to raise cash for things that enhance their value. These things include capital expenditures, infrastructure, and other strategic investments.
Why are small caps called low float stocks?
The smaller the cap, the greater the volatility. Small caps are also called low float stocks because their stock float has fewer shares to go around. These are the volatile stocks that most of my students play in the SteadyTrade Team.
What happens when you reverse a stock split?
In a reverse stock split, float shares might go from five to one, making the stock price higher and less available. For example, if a stock cost $20 before the reverse split and you owned five shares, you’d now own one share valued at $100. The value stays the same — in theory.
How does keeping an eye on a stock float help?
Keeping an eye on the stock float can help you predict a stock’’s direction. When you know how much of the stock float insiders have, you can keep an eye on events that could affect the share price. For example, if insiders own 25% of the float shares, it’ll affect the stock price when they sell.
How does insider ownership affect stock price?
For example, if insiders own 25% of the float shares, it’ll affect the stock price when they sell. If they own 50% of the stock float, the impact will be even greater. There are many ways a company can influence its share price. It can issue more shares than are already in the market, causing share dilution.
What is float in capital markets?
The term float refers to the regular shares a company has issued to the public that are available for investors to trade.
What is float stock 2021?
Updated Jun 23, 2021. The term float refers to the regular shares a company has issued to the public that are available for investors to trade. This figure is derived by taking a company's outstanding shares and subtracting any restricted stock, which is stock that is under some sort of sales restriction. Restricted stock can include stock held by ...
Why is restricted stock important?
A company's float is an important number for investors because it indicates how many shares are actually available to be bought and sold by the general investing public.
Why is volatility less in stocks?
This makes sense when you think about it, as the greater the number of shares available for trade, the less volatility the stock will experience because the harder it will be for a smaller number of shares to move the price.
Is a company responsible for how shares within the float are traded by the public?
The company is not responsible for how shares within the float are traded by the public; this is a function of the secondary market. Only changes that affect the number of shares available for trade change the float, not secondary market transactions, nor the creation or trading of stock options.
Is restricted stock a form of employee compensation?
Thus, there can be a large difference between outstanding and authorized shares or floating and authorized shares. Restricted stock is gaining popularity as a form of employee compensation given its ease and straightforwardness compared to stock options.
What does it mean when a stock has a big float?
If a stock has a really big float, this would mean that the stock is prone to less explosive moves.
Why is float important?
Now why is the "float" important? The smaller a float, the more volatile a stock can become. If a stock has one million shares in its float and announces really good news, the share price will soar due to their being hardly any shares in the float.
What is floating stock?
Floating stock is the most narrow number of a company's shares. This measure excludes closely-held shares that are held by company insiders or controlling investors. These stockholders typically include officers, directors, and company-sponsored foundations.
What does it mean when a company's stock is floating?
If a company’s floating stock to outstanding shares percentage is low, it means that the company has a lot of closely-held shares.
What is free float index?
Many indexes use the floating stock of a company as the basis for market cap calculation. These indexes are identified as free float capitalization indexes. The S&P 500 is one example of a free-float index.
Why are shares outstanding important?
Shares outstanding are useful for calculating many widely used measures of a company, like its market capitalization and earnings per share . The number of shares outstanding can impact how liquid a stock is, which in turn often affects the volatility of its price.
How many Microsoft shares will be floating in 2021?
As of Jan. 21, 2021, Microsoft had: 1. The 7.54 billion floating shares are the shares considered for the free float, market capitalization index weightings. In the case of Microsoft, it has a relatively small float adjustment, with a floating percentage of 99.8%.
What is an outstanding stock?
A company’s shares outstanding (or outstanding shares) are the total number of shares issued and actively held by stockholders—both outside investors and corporate insiders. However, they must be actual shares.
What are authorized shares?
Authorized shares refer to the maximum number of shares that a corporation is legally permitted to issue; it includes already-issued stock, ...

What Is Free-Float Methodology?
Understanding Free-Float Methodology
- The free-float methodology is sometimes referred to as float-adjusted capitalization. According to some experts, the free-float method is considered to be a better way of calculating market capitalization (as opposed to the full-market capitalization method, for example). Full-market capitalization includes all of the shares provided by a company through its stock issuance plan. …
Price-Weighted vs. Market-Capitalization-Weighted
- Indexes in the market are usually weighted by either price or market capitalization. Both methodologies weigh the returns of the indexes’ individual stocks by their respective weighting types. Market capitalization weighting is the most common index-weighting methodology. The leading capitalization-weighted index in the United States is the S&P 500Index. The type of weig…
Example of Free-Float Methodology
- Suppose that stock ABC is trading at $100 and has 125,000 shares in total. Out of this amount, 25,000 shares are locked-in (meaning that they are held by large institutional investors and company management and are not available for trading). Using the free-float methodology, ABC's market capitalization is 100 x 100,000 (total number of shares available for trading) = $10 million.