Issued shares is a term of
law and
finance for the quantity of
shares of a
corporation, which have been allocated (allotted) and are subsequently held by
shareholders. The act of creating new issued shares is called
issuance,
allocation or
allotment. Allotment is simply the creation of shares and their transfer to a subscriber. After allotment, a subscriber becomes a shareholder. The number of issued shares is a subset of the total
authorized shares. It is that amount which the
board of directors and/or shareholders have agreed to allocate. Issued shares are the sum of
outstanding shares and
treasury shares.