Net Equity Issuance

Charts of the Week — September 23, 2022

Stocks By Gregory Blaha

U.S. equity net issuance expanded by $526 billion in the second quarter.

The chart below breaks down ownership of the U.S. equity market each quarter since 1947. As we have written in the past, the “household” category is a bit of a misnomer. Small retail investors do not actually own 40% of the market. Rather, this category is a catch-all.

The precise equation used to compute households’ equity ownership starts with all U.S. equities outstanding and subtracts those owned by mutual funds, pension funds, foreigners, government retirement funds, ETFs and a few other small categories. The remainder is named “households.” In other words, it is a residual account with a fancy name.

 

 

The next chart details net equity issuance in the United States. In a nutshell, this series nets issuance due to initial public offerings (IPOs) and seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) against equity retirements due to company buybacks and mergers and acquisitions. In Q2 2022 U.S. companies’ net issuance expanded by $526 billion.

 

 

For interactive visualizations of the charts above with further detail on the equity market, see our recent Flow of Funds Update.