Also known as public equity float. The portion of a company's outstanding shares that is in the hands of public investors, as opposed to company officers, directors, or stockholders that hold controlling interests. These are the shares that are available for trading. The float is calculated by subtracting restricted shares from outstanding shares.

For purposes of determining whether a company is a smaller reporting company or is eligible to use Form S-3 (or Form F-3), the SEC defines public float as the aggregate worldwide number of shares of a company's voting and non-voting common equity securities held by non-affiliates multiplied by the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average of the bid and asked prices of common equity, in the principal market for the common equity (Rule 405, Securities Act and Rule 12b-2, Exchange Act).

The public float of a company is one issue for a company to consider when determining whether to conduct a follow-on offering of its equity securities (see Practice Note, Follow-on and Secondary Registered Offerings: Overview).