Shares Basic (Historical) Formula in Excel

Use the Shares Basic (Historical) formula in Excel with MarketXLS to quickly retrieve a company's total number of shares outstanding for a given historical period. With this function, you can easily track how a company’s basic shares outstanding changes over time—an essential metric for investors and analysts.

Understanding Shares Basic (Historical)

The Shares Basic (Historical) formula helps you:

• Determine the number of basic shares outstanding in a specific year or quarter.
• Compare outstanding shares across multiple time periods.
• Make more informed decisions by analyzing share count trends over time.

Key benefits:

• Quick analysis of share dilution or share buybacks.
• Ideal for building time-series models and forecasting.
• Useful for portfolio managers assessing share-based performance metrics.

When to use:

• When evaluating historical changes in a company's equity.
• For comparing different fiscal periods for the same company.
• In fundamental analysis to quantify ownership stakes or share-based ratios.

Syntax and Parameters

The basic syntax for the hf_Shares_Basic function is:

=hf_Shares_Basic(Symbol, Year, [Quarter], [TTM])

? Pro Tip: Year can also be specified as "lq" (last quarter), "lq-1", "ly" (last year), "ly-1", "lt" (last 12 months), or "lt-1".

Return Value:

• Returns a numeric value representing the total number of basic shares for the specified historical period.
• Returns "NA" if invalid symbol, missing data subscription, or if no data is available.

Error Handling & Special Cases:

• If the symbol is invalid, the function returns "NA".
• If you do not have a historical fundamental data subscription, you may receive an error message or "NA".
• Large calls for multiple time periods in a short time may affect performance. Use Excel’s caching features if possible.

Examples and Usage

Below are practical examples demonstrating common usage scenarios.

1. Fetch the basic shares outstanding for Microsoft in 2022:

   =hf_Shares_Basic("MSFT", 2022)

2. Retrieve the basic shares for the second quarter of 2021:

   =hf_Shares_Basic("MSFT", "2021", 2)

3. Get the trailing twelve months (TTM) figure for Microsoft for year 2023, quarter 1:

   =hf_Shares_Basic("MSFT", 2023, 1, "TTM")

4. Use relative period references for the last quarter:

   =hf_Shares_Basic("^SPX", "lq")

5. For an options symbol and the last year minus one:

   =hf_Shares_Basic("@MSFT 110122C00020000", "ly-1")

?? Note: This formula requires a historical fundamental data subscription. If you're not subscribed, the function may return errors like "NA."

Using Cell References

• Directly reference cells for year or quarter:

  =hf_Shares_Basic(A1, B1)

• If a date is in a cell (e.g., A1), you can extract the year or convert the date to text:

  =hf_Shares_Basic("MSFT", YEAR(A1))
  =hf_Shares_Basic("MSFT", TEXT(A1,"yyyy"))

Common Questions

1. Why does the formula return "NA"?

   • This usually indicates an invalid symbol or missing data subscription. Double-check your subscription status and ensure proper symbol formatting.

2. What if I want data for older historical years?

   • You can specify previous years directly (e.g., "2010") or use relative references like "ly-5".

3. Can I use it with indices or crypto symbols?

   • Yes. For indices, use "^SPX"; for crypto, use "BTCUSD:DEFAULT".

4. How often is the data updated?

   • Data updates depend on source APIs. MarketXLS typically refreshes fundamental data daily, but exact availability can vary.

5. Does it support non-US equities?

   • The function supports many international tickers. However, if your plan doesn’t include certain regions, it may return "NA".

For further assistance or to explore related historical fundamental functions (Revenue, Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit, R&D Expenses, etc.), visit the MarketXLS Knowledge Base.

? Pro Tip: Combine hf_Shares_Basic with other MarketXLS fundamentals in a dashboard to view changes in share counts side by side with revenue and earnings.