Shareholders Equity (Total)

How to read it

Shareholders Equity (Total) is a reported line item from the balance sheet: the company’s assets less its liabilities, as the company states them. stockrow shows it for each quarter and each year. It grows when the company keeps its profits or raises money by issuing shares, and shrinks when it makes losses, pays dividends or buys back stock. Write-downs of assets reduce it as well.

What is typical

Asset-heavy businesses such as banks, utilities and manufacturers tend to carry large equity balances, while companies whose value sits in brands, software or people often show far less on their books than the market says they are worth. Compare the ratios built on it with the sector medians rather than reading the figure alone.

Pitfalls

Equity is a book value, not a market value, and it can be small or even negative at a profitable company that has bought back a lot of stock. When it is small or negative, ratios that divide by it can look extreme or lose their meaning. On stockrow it feeds the three-, five- and ten-year Shareholders Equity growth rates, Return on Invested Capital, Cash Return on Invested Capital, the Debt to Equity Ratio, Shareholders Equity per Share and BV per Share, so any of these will move with it.