Used in the context of general equities. stock held by shareholders (verses the company's treasury stock). Bloomberg Financial Dictionary
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outstanding out‧stand‧ing [aʊtˈstændɪŋ] adjective
1. FINANCE a company's outstanding shares are all the shares that it has sold and that are held by its shareholders:
• It will have 14.4 million shares outstanding after the offering.
• The company wants to raise the $5 million from employees purchasing some of its outstanding junk bonds.
2. FINANCE outstanding loans, debts etc are ones that have not been paid yet:
• Proceeds from the sale are expected to pay the company's outstanding debts.
3. not solved, done, or dealt with:
• Only queries still outstanding after this stage should be referred to the Help Desk.
• The committee reached broad agreement on all outstanding issues.
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outstanding UK US /ˌaʊtˈstændɪŋ/ adjective
► FINANCE an outstanding debt has not yet been paid: »
Most of the proceeds from the house sale were used to pay the outstanding mortgage.
»an outstanding debt/balance
► FINANCE used to talk about the total number of shares held by a company's shareholders at a particular time: »
As of July 23, the chip maker had about 12.3 million shares outstanding.
»outstanding shares/securities/stock
► an outstanding problem or subject has not been solved or discussed: »
We still have some outstanding issues to discuss.
Financial and business terms. 2012.