Market capitalization
The total market value of a company's shares: share price multiplied by shares outstanding.
Market capitalization is the share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. It is the market value of the equity, not the value of the business, which also depends on debt and cash. Companies are often grouped by size: large, mid and small caps.
On our site, market cap is shown with the share count used. Share counts change with issuance and buybacks, so the figure updates over time.
Traders care because index weights, fund eligibility and liquidity expectations often depend on market cap. Enterprise value, which adds net debt, is the better measure when comparing companies with different leverage.
Worked example (illustrative numbers, not real data): a company has 200 million shares outstanding and trades at 40 dollars. Its market cap is 8 billion dollars. With 2 billion dollars of net debt, its enterprise value is 10 billion.