Capcom, the legendary Japanese video game developer responsible for iconic franchises like Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Monster Hunter, has been on a roll lately. Their recent financial data paints a picture of a company thriving amidst a challenging global economic landscape. But buried within the numbers lies a peculiar anomaly, a financial enigma that seems to have eluded the keen eyes of Wall Street analysts: Capcom appears to have negative shares outstanding.

This isn't a typo. The data clearly states that as of the first quarter of 2024, Capcom has a staggering -209,113,800 shares outstanding. On the surface, this appears nonsensical. How can a company have a negative number of shares circulating in the market?

The answer, it seems, lies in a recent stock split. On March 28th, 2024, Capcom implemented a 2-for-1 stock split. This means existing shareholders received two shares for every one they held, effectively doubling the number of shares outstanding. However, looking at the historical data on outstanding shares, a strange discrepancy emerges.

Prior to the split, Capcom consistently maintained around 213 million shares outstanding. Immediately following the split, this number should have theoretically jumped to approximately 426 million shares. Instead, the data shows a negative value, suggesting a massive reduction in shares rather than the expected increase.

Share Outstanding Anomaly

The following chart depicts the historical shares outstanding for Capcom, highlighting the discrepancy in 2024.