Issuance of common stock

Issuance of common stock is the cash a company receives from selling new shares during the period. It appears as an inflow in the financing section of the cash flow statement.

New shares are sold in a few ways: a public offering to raise capital, employees buying shares through stock purchase plans, or employees paying to exercise stock options. For large established companies the line is usually small and comes mostly from employee plans, while for younger companies raising capital it can be their main source of financing.

Every new share dilutes existing shareholders, so read this line next to repurchases of common stock. A company that buys back shares while issuing many new ones to employees may be spending much of its buyback money just to keep the share count from rising.