# Stock and Percent Ownership

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-and-percent-ownership/623077>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 25, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-and-percent-ownership/623077 "2012-05-25T16:41:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TNWPsycho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-and-percent-ownership/623077/1 "2012-05-25T16:41:19Z")

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I was looking around at some stocks this morning and found this in the [Charter Communications](https://trading.scottrade.com/quotesresearch/ScottradeResearch.aspx?page=%2fqnr%2fStocks%2fInsiders%3fsymbol%3dCHTR) stock

How can a stock have 101% ownership?

Does percent ownership actually mean anything?

For example: WMT is 77.5% owned.

If a company has 1000 shares and i buy 500 does that actually mean i own 50% of the company?

I thought i understood the percent ownership thing but Charter kind of threw me for a loop.

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**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-and-percent-ownership/623077/2 "2012-05-25T17:14:32Z")

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Your link takes me to a login page, so I’m not able to see what you’re asking about.

However, my guess is that the 101% is just an artifact of rounding a series of numbers.

If something is less than 100% owned, that could be a percentage of total authorized shares owned outside of the company. Treasury shares are those that the company bought back for itself, often so that it has stock for employee stock plans. While they exist as legally authorized shares, they’re frequently excluded from calculations.

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**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-and-percent-ownership/623077/3 "2012-05-25T17:54:50Z")

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> [@TNWPsycho](#):
>
> For example: WMT is 77.5% owned.

Cite?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stock-and-percent-ownership/623077/4 "2012-05-25T21:45:42Z")

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> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#):
>
> Cite?

I imagine **TWN** is talking about institutional ownership, which does make up the bulk of Wal-Mart shareholders.