Legal Definitions - authorized shares

Authorized shares refer to the total number of shares of stock that a corporation is allowed to issue under its charter or articles of incorporation. This includes both common stock and preferred stock. The owners of a majority of the outstanding shares must give consent if the corporation wants to increase the amount of authorized shares.

For example, if a corporation has 1,000 authorized shares and has issued 500 shares to investors, it still has 500 authorized shares that it can issue in the future.