what is capital stock in accounting 
in accounting and finance capital stock represents the value of a company s shares that are held by outside investors it is calculated by multiplying the par value of those shares by the number of shares outstanding the bottom linecapital stock is another term for the ownership shares of a company s equity represented as either preferred or common stock corporations typically sell their shares to investors in order to raise capital to fund their business operations in exchange investors receive partial ownership of the company including dividends or voting power 