Financial Dictionary

Financial Dictionary - definitons of investment, economic and financial terms

Atlantic Financial


Atlantic Financial


Investment Word

Market Capitalization

Add to GoogleAtlantic Financial Investment Word RSS Feed

Market Capitalization (often abbreviated as "market cap") is a measurement of corporate size that refers to the current stock price times the number of outstanding shares. The size and growth of a firm's market capitalization is often one of the critical measurements of a public company's success or failure. However, market capitalization may increase or decrease for reasons unrelated to performance such as acquisitions, divestitures and stock repurchases. Market capitalization is the number of common shares multiplied by the current price of those shares.

The term capitalization is sometimes used as a synonym of market capitalization; though more often, it denotes the total amount of funds used to finance a firm's balance sheet and is calculated as market capitalization plus debt (book value or market value) plus preferred stock.

Market Capitalization - definition

Back to the top of the page for Market Capitalization