Market Capitalization: What It Means for Investors

This widget shows the number of times this symbol reached a new low price for specific periods, from the past 5-Days to the past 20-Years. For each period, the “Percent From Last” column shows you where the current price is in relationship to the High price for that period. When negative, the current price is that much lower than the highest price reported for the period. When positive, the current price is that much higher than the highest price from that period. This widget shows the number of times this symbol reached a new high price for specific periods, from the past 5-Days to the past 20-Years.

Small-cap share prices may be more volatile but provide greater growth opportunities than large caps. Market cap can be a valuable tool for investors watching stocks and evaluating potential investments. 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. In an acquisition, the market cap helps determine whether a takeover candidate represents a good value to the acquirer.

The “More Data” widgets are also available from the Links column of the right side of the data table. You can also view the latest trades, and view corporate actions (U.S. equities only) by selecting the appropriate tab. The Barchart Technical Opinion widget shows you today’s overall Barchart Opinion with general information on how to interpret the short and longer term signals.

A high market cap signifies that the company has a larger presence in the market. Available for U.S. and Canadian equities, futures and forex symbols, the Latest Trades tab displays the last 50 trades for the symbol. The different measurement of Market Cap values also form the basis to launch a variety of market indexes. The Corporation Actions tab shows stock splits, dividends (ex-date) and earnings. In addition, My Barchart members see the last two years’ of data, where Barchart Premier members will see corporate actions going back to January 1, 2000. This means that stocks with larger market capitalizations make up comparatively more of the index.

Does Market Cap Affect Stock Price?

1. Barchart Premier Members may also download additional data using the “Historical Data” page, where you can download Intraday, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly data (going back to Jan. 1, 1980).
2. Small-cap companies have a market cap between $300 million to $2 billion.
3. Small-cap stocks are therefore often more volatile than those of larger companies.
4. Available for U.S. and Canadian equities, futures and forex symbols, the Latest Trades tab displays the last 50 trades for the symbol.
5. These stocks typically trade on the pink sheets or Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB).

It surpassed Microsoft (MSFT), which had a market cap of $3.317 trillion. Unique to Barchart.com, data tables contain an option that allows you to see more data for the symbol without leaving the page. Click the “+” icon in the first column (on the left) to view more data for the selected symbol. Scroll through widgets of the different content available for the symbol.

Why Are Small-Cap Stocks Often More Volatile?

For dynamically-generated tables (such as a Stock or ETF Screener) where you see more than 1000 rows of data, the download will be limited to only the first 1000 records on the table. For other static pages (such as the Russell 3000 Components list) all rows will be downloaded. Also unique to Barchart, Flipcharts allow you to scroll through all the symbols on the table in a chart view. While viewing Flipcharts, you can apply a custom chart template, further customizing the way you can analyze the symbols.

Mid-cap companies are in the process of expanding and carry an inherently higher risk than large-cap companies. beginner’s guide to buying and selling cryptocurrency Generally, investments in mega-cap or large-cap stocks are considered more conservative with less volatility than investments in small-cap stocks. Since the market price of shares of a publicly listed company keeps changing with each passing second, the market cap also fluctuates accordingly. Market cap is calculated by multiplying a company’s outstanding shares by the current market price of one share.

BB&T Corporation stock chart

Market cap does not affect stock price; rather, market cap is calculated by analyzing the stock price and number of shares issued. Although a blue-chip stock may perform better because of organizational efficiency and greater market presence, having a higher market cap does not directly impact stock prices. An initial public offering (IPO) helps determine a company’s first market capitalization.

Mid-cap stocks range from $2 billion to $10 billion in market cap, and this group of companies is considered to be more volatile than the large-cap and mega-cap companies. Mega-cap companies are those with a market cap of $200 billion or higher. They are the largest publicly traded companies by market value, and typically represent the leaders of a particular industry sector or market. Although it is used to describe a company, market capitalization does not measure the equity value of a company. Shares are often over- or undervalued by the market, meaning the market price how to buy polygon crypto determines only how much the market is willing to pay for its shares. A company with 20 million shares selling at $100 a share has a market cap of $2 billion.

These companies are considered to be the riskiest, and the potential for gain varies widely. These stocks typically trade on the pink sheets or Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB). One example is JetBlue Airways (JBLU), which had a market cap of $1.93 billion as the market close on June 18, 2024, putting it on the high end of small-cap stocks. Track records of such companies cryptocurrency mining aren’t as long as those of the mid-to-mega-caps, but they also present the possibility of greater capital appreciation.