Understanding of market capitalization.

Market capitalization refers to the total dollar market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock. Commonly referred to as "market cap," it's calculated by multiplying the total number of a company's outstanding shares by the current market price of one share. For example, a company with 10 million shares selling for $100 each would have a market cap of $1 billion. Understanding Market Capitalization Understanding what a company is worth is an important task and often difficult to quickly and accurately ascertain. Market capitalization is a quick and easy method for estimating a company's value by extrapolating what the market thinks it is worth for publicly traded companies. A company's market cap is first established via an initial public offering (IPO). Before an IPO, the company that wishes to go public enlists an investment bank to employ valuation techniques to derive a company's value and to determine how many shares will be offered to the public and at what price.