Outstanding Shares & Public Float Data API

To get the current shares outstanding for a publicly traded company, query the /float endpoint with the company's ticker (for example AAPL). The endpoint returns an array of float records ordered from most recent backwards, so the first entry in the response represents the most recently reported share count.

Each record holds the share count for each share class inside the outstanding-shares array on the float object (data[].float.outstandingShares[].value), along with the as-of date that figure applies to (data[].float.outstandingShares[].period). The tickers the record applies to are listed on data[].tickers and the issuer's CIK is on data[].cik.

To pull share data by CIK rather than ticker, query the /float endpoint with the company's CIK as the lookup key (for example 1318605 for Tesla). The CIK must be supplied without any leading zeros — a value copied from EDGAR like 0001318605 will not match, but 1318605 will.

The response is the same shape as a ticker lookup: an array of float records where each entry contains the issuer's CIK (data[].cik), the tickers the record covers (data[].tickers), and the per-share-class outstanding-share figures (data[].float.outstandingShares).

To keep the API key out of the request URL when calling /float, send it in the Authorization request header instead of as a token query parameter. The header value is the raw API key (no Bearer prefix) and is read on every request to the endpoint.

Using the header form keeps the key out of server access logs, browser history, and any URL-based telemetry that would otherwise capture a ?token= parameter.

To assemble a historical time series of shares outstanding for backtesting, query the /float endpoint with the company's ticker or CIK. The endpoint returns every historical float record it holds for that issuer in the data array, with one entry per source filing going back to 2011.

Each entry exposes the as-of date of the share count (data[].float.outstandingShares[].period), the share count itself (data[].float.outstandingShares[].value), the share class (data[].float.outstandingShares[].shareClass), and the fiscal period the underlying filing covers (data[].periodOfReport). Sorting the entries by periodOfReport produces the chronological series you can join against historical prices.

To see share counts broken out per class for a multi-class issuer, query the /float endpoint with the company's ticker or CIK. The per-class breakdown is in the outstanding-shares array on each record (data[].float.outstandingShares), with one element per share class reported in the filing.

Each element identifies the class on data[].float.outstandingShares[].shareClass — for example CommonClassA, CommonClassB, or CapitalClassC for Alphabet — and gives that class's count on data[].float.outstandingShares[].value as of the date in data[].float.outstandingShares[].period. When an issuer reports only a single class, the shareClass field is an empty string.

To get a company's most recently disclosed public float in US dollars, query the /float endpoint with the issuer's ticker or CIK and look at the public-float array on each record (data[].float.publicFloat). The dollar amount is on data[].float.publicFloat[].value and the date it applies to is on data[].float.publicFloat[].period.

Because public float is typically only disclosed once a year on the cover page of the annual report, the latest figure is the entry on the record with the largest data[].periodOfReport whose data[].float.publicFloat array is non-empty.

To pick the most recent share count out of a long history returned by /float, sort the records by their reporting timestamp (data[].reportedAt) or by their fiscal period end (data[].periodOfReport) in descending order and take the first item. Both timestamps are ISO-formatted, so a lexicographic sort matches a chronological one.

The selected record's outstanding-share figures live on data[].float.outstandingShares[].value, with the cover-page as-of date on data[].float.outstandingShares[].period, which is usually a few weeks after periodOfReport.

Each record returned by /float carries the accession number of the underlying SEC filing on data[].sourceFilingAccessionNo (for example 0001652044-23-000016). The accession number uniquely identifies the 10-K, 10-Q, or other periodic report that the share count and public float were parsed from.

That accession number can be combined with the issuer's CIK (data[].cik) to construct the EDGAR document URL, or passed to the /full-text-search, /extractor, or other sec-api endpoints that accept an accession number to retrieve the full filing.

Inside each /float record, the as-of date of the share count is on the period field of each outstanding-shares element (data[].float.outstandingShares[].period). That date is taken from the cover page of the underlying filing and corresponds to the date the issuer's transfer agent ran the count, which is often a few days or weeks before the filing was submitted.

The separate data[].reportedAt timestamp captures when the filing itself was published on EDGAR, and data[].periodOfReport captures the fiscal period end the filing covers. For most quarterly and annual reports, period falls between periodOfReport and reportedAt.

For an issuer that trades under several tickers — Alphabet's GOOGL and GOOG, or Caterpillar's CAT, CAT23, and CAT35 — the /float endpoint returns the same record set regardless of which ticker you query. All tickers tied to the filing are listed in data[].tickers, so a single lookup by any one of them is sufficient to pull the complete share-class breakdown.

Alternatively, query by the issuer's CIK (data[].cik), which is invariant across share classes. The CIK is the most reliable key when you want to de-duplicate records across tickers in a watchlist.

To detect issuance or buyback activity between two reporting periods, pull the share history from the /float endpoint and compare the share counts (data[].float.outstandingShares[].value) on two consecutive entries, matched by share class (data[].float.outstandingShares[].shareClass). A positive difference indicates net issuance over the interval; a negative difference indicates a net buyback.

For a clean comparison, line up entries on the cover-page as-of date (data[].float.outstandingShares[].period) or the fiscal period end (data[].periodOfReport), and exclude class boundaries by diffing within the same shareClass value.

Each record returned by /float carries a public-float array on data[].float.publicFloat. A record where this array is empty means the underlying filing did not disclose a public-float figure — this is the norm for quarterly reports and for many issuers whose filings are exempt from the public-float disclosure.

To check whether a company ever reports public float, query /float with its ticker or CIK and inspect each record in the data array: a non-empty data[].float.publicFloat confirms the filing carries a dollar amount on data[].float.publicFloat[].value.

The /float endpoint covers every company that has filed quarterly or annual reports with the SEC, including unlisted issuers and companies that have since been delisted. The dataset is survivorship-bias-free, so historical records for delisted issuers remain queryable.

Because the ticker may no longer be active, lookup by CIK on the cik parameter is the dependable key for these issuers. Each record still exposes the historical tickers the filing referenced on data[].tickers.

The /float endpoint exposes share-count history going back to 2011, so a single query by ticker or CIK returns the full record set covering more than a decade of filings. Each record in the data array represents one quarterly or annual report, with the share count on data[].float.outstandingShares[].value and the as-of date on data[].float.outstandingShares[].period.

For a long-horizon backtest, iterate over the returned records sorted by data[].periodOfReport ascending to build a continuous quarterly series from the earliest available filing forward.

New share-count and public-float records become available through the /float endpoint within 300 milliseconds of the underlying filing being published on EDGAR. That latency covers parsing the cover page of the new 10-K or 10-Q, extracting the outstanding-shares and public-float figures, and indexing the record so it appears in subsequent queries.

In practice this means a fresh record with the latest data[].reportedAt timestamp is queryable almost immediately after the filing hits EDGAR.

Public float is reported in US dollars on data[].float.publicFloat[].value, while shares outstanding are reported as a share count on data[].float.outstandingShares[].value. To compare the two, divide the dollar float by the share price on the matching data[].float.publicFloat[].period to convert it to a share count, then divide that result by the total outstanding-share count for the same period.

Pull the inputs from a single /float call by ticker or CIK, match a public-float entry to the outstanding-shares entry whose period is closest (typically the prior June 30 cover-page snapshot for the annual filing), and source the share price for the matching date from a separate price feed.

A single /float record carries two distinct dates: the fiscal period end on data[].periodOfReport (for example 2022-12-31 for a calendar-year 10-K) and the cover-page as-of date for the share count on data[].float.outstandingShares[].period (typically a few weeks later, such as 2023-02-01). The two figures sit on the same record because the SEC requires issuers to disclose the share count as of a recent date on the cover page rather than as of the fiscal period end.

Use periodOfReport when you need the share count aligned with the financial statements, and outstandingShares[].period when you need the most accurate share count the filing actually disclosed.

Filer status is determined by the public float as of the last business day of the issuer's second fiscal quarter, which is the figure disclosed on the cover page of the subsequent annual report. The /float endpoint exposes that value on the public-float array of the annual-report record (data[].float.publicFloat[].value), with the qualifying date on data[].float.publicFloat[].period.

To find it, query /float with the issuer's ticker or CIK, locate the record whose data[].periodOfReport matches the fiscal year end, and read the dollar amount whose period falls on the second-quarter cutoff (for example 2022-06-30 for a calendar-year filer).

The /float endpoint returns a total object alongside the data array, and the count of records matching the query is on total.value. For a single-issuer lookup by ticker or CIK, that number is the count of float records held for the company across all of its periodic filings.

The total.value figure is the full match count even when the data array is paginated, so it can be read directly without scanning every record.

To retrieve only the most recent record from the /float endpoint, query by ticker or CIK, sort the data array by data[].reportedAt descending, and take the first element. That entry corresponds to the latest quarterly or annual filing the issuer published.

The selected record exposes the share count on data[].float.outstandingShares[].value as of data[].float.outstandingShares[].period, the underlying accession number on data[].sourceFilingAccessionNo, and the fiscal period covered on data[].periodOfReport.

The /float endpoint covers both domestic and foreign EDGAR filers, so a foreign private issuer that files 20-F or 40-F annual reports is queryable by the same ticker or CIK lookup used for US filers. The response shape is identical: a data array of float records with per-class share counts on data[].float.outstandingShares and public float on data[].float.publicFloat.

If the issuer's US ticker is unfamiliar, the CIK lookup on the cik parameter is the safer key because it is constant across exchange listings.

To produce a single aggregate share count for a multi-class issuer, query /float with the company's ticker or CIK and sum the per-class values on data[].float.outstandingShares[].value for the entries that share the same data[].float.outstandingShares[].period within a single record. Each share class — CommonClassA, CommonClassB, CapitalClassC and so on — contributes one entry, and they are reported as of the same cover-page date within a given filing.

Note that this aggregate counts every class equally on a one-share-equals-one-share basis. Conversion ratios between super-voting and economic classes are not part of the /float response.

A stock split shows up in the /float history as a large step-change in data[].float.outstandingShares[].value between two adjacent records of the same share class, with no corresponding capital-raising event. A 3-for-1 split, for example, roughly triples the share count from one data[].float.outstandingShares[].period to the next.

To confirm the move is a split rather than an issuance, cross-check the ratio against the price ratio for the same dates from an external price source — a split moves shares and price in inverse proportion, while a true issuance does not.

To collect mid-year public-float values for a list of tickers, query the /float endpoint once per ticker and filter the public-float array on each record so that data[].float.publicFloat[].period falls on June 30 of the year you care about. The corresponding dollar amount is on data[].float.publicFloat[].value.

For calendar-year filers the second-quarter cutoff is June 30, but issuers with non-calendar fiscal years report their float as of a different mid-fiscal-year date, so the filter should be applied per issuer rather than assuming YYYY-06-30 globally.

Share data for a newly IPO'd company becomes queryable on the /float endpoint within 300 milliseconds of the first quarterly or annual report appearing on EDGAR. Until that first periodic report is filed, the company has no /float record, since the dataset is sourced from the cover pages of 10-K and 10-Q filings rather than from the S-1 itself.

Once the first 10-Q is published, a lookup by ticker or CIK returns a single record whose data[].float.outstandingShares[].value reflects the post-IPO share count, with data[].periodOfReport set to the fiscal quarter end the filing covers.

The /float endpoint expects the CIK without any leading zeros, so a value like 0001067983 copied from EDGAR will not match — strip the leading zeros and supply 1067983 instead. The same rule applies to every other CIK-keyed sec-api endpoint.

The CIK returned on data[].cik in the response is also presented without leading zeros, so values can be round-tripped through the API without reformatting.

For each ticker on the watchlist, query the /float endpoint by ticker or CIK and pair up records whose data[].periodOfReport values are roughly twelve months apart. The year-over-year change is the ratio of the later data[].float.outstandingShares[].value to the earlier one for the same data[].float.outstandingShares[].shareClass — a value above 1.10 flags the issuer for the screener.

When an issuer has multiple share classes, run the comparison per class to avoid mixing dilution across CommonClassA, CommonClassB, and similar entries, or sum the values across all classes for each period first and compare the totals.

Use the stable record identifier on each float item (data[].id) as the deduplication key when caching responses from the /float endpoint. Every share-count record carries a unique id such as 4a29432e1345e30a01e4aa10a2b57b62 that does not change across repeated calls, so a local cache or database keyed on that id will recognise a record you have already seen and skip re-processing it.

When the same id appears in a later response, the underlying record is the same one you stored before and can be passed over. If you also want to cross-check against the underlying filing, pair the id with the source filing accession number (data[].sourceFilingAccessionNo) and the fiscal period (data[].periodOfReport), both of which are stable for a given filing.

To detect share-class changes over time, query the /float endpoint by ticker or CIK and compare the set of class labels on data[].float.outstandingShares[].shareClass across successive records for the same issuer. Lining up records by data[].periodOfReport from oldest to newest, a label that first appears in one record after being absent in the prior one signals a newly introduced class, and a label that drops out and never returns signals a retired one.

When running the comparison, treat the empty-string shareClass (used when the filing reports a single class without naming it) as its own value, and match labels exactly — CommonClassA, CommonClassB, and CapitalClassC are distinct entries even when they belong to the same issuer such as Alphabet (CIK 1652044).

To trace the current share count for a specific class back to the filing that first reported it, query the /float endpoint by ticker or CIK and read the most recent data[].float.outstandingShares[].value for the target data[].float.outstandingShares[].shareClass. That value is the current count for that class.

Then scan the historical records for the same issuer, keeping only the outstanding-shares entries whose shareClass matches and whose value equals the current count, and pick the one with the earliest data[].reportedAt. The accession number on data[].sourceFilingAccessionNo for that record identifies the filing — for example a 10-Q such as 0001652044-22-000071 — that first established the share count the issuer is still reporting today.