Nominal Value of Shares

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21 Aug, 2024

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What is the Nominal Value of Shares?

Nominal value of shares refers to the minimum value as decided of the particular type of shares issued by the company below which is calculated by dividing the value of total paid-up share capital of the company by the total number of the shares outstanding at the particular point of time.

What is the Nominal Value of Shares?

Formula to Calculate the Nominal Value of Shares

The formula for nominal share value is quite simple, and it is derived by dividing the paid-up share capital by the outstanding number of shares of the company.

Nominal Value of Shares = Paid-up Share Capital / Number of Outstanding Shares

Steps to Calculate the Nominal Value of Shares

The formula can be derived by using the following steps:

Firstly, determine the total paid-up share capital, easily available as a line item in the balance sheet.
Next, determine the number of outstanding shares of the company. Please keep in mind, not the authorized shares but the paid-up shares are to be used.
Finally, the formula is derived by dividing the total paid-up share capital (step 1) by the outstanding number of company shares (step 2), as shown below.

Nominal Value of Shares = Paid-up Share Capital / Number of Outstanding Shares

Examples

Example #1

Let us take the example of ABC Ltd to calculate the stock nominal value. ABC Ltd is an ice cream manufacturing company that started its operation last year. So, this financial year was its first reporting year, and as per its balance sheet for the year ended on March 31, 2019, the paid-up share capital stood at $60,000 and retained earnings of $120,000. The company currently has 2,500 authorized shares and 2,000 outstanding shares in the market.

Given,

Paid-up share capital = $60,000
Retained earnings = $120,000 (redundant)
Number of authorized shares = 2,500 (redundant)
Number of outstanding shares = 2,000

Based on the information, determine the following.

Therefore, it can be calculated as,

= $60,000 / 2,000

= $30.00 per share

Example #2

Let us take the example of Apple Inc.’s balance sheet for the period ended on September 29, 2018. The following financial information is available in the public domain.

Based on the information, determine the following.

Therefore, the calculation can be done as below

= $98,812 / (4,754,986,000 + 5,126,201,000)

= $0.00001 per share

Therefore, the nominal value of Apple Inc. as on September 29, 2018, stood at $0.00001 per share although the market value currently hovers around $200 per share.

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Relevance and Uses

Although the concept is most commonly used for stocks or shares, it is equally useful for bonds and preferred stock investors. This is because the nominal value of shares is also known as face value, and it can have any value from the range of $0.00001 per share to $10 per share.