--- title: "Get float breakdown" method: GET path: "/companies/{ticker}/float" tags: ["Companies"] --- # Get float breakdown `GET /companies/{ticker}/float` ## Request - Base URL: `https://api.signal8.ai/api/v1/public` - URL: `https://api.signal8.ai/api/v1/public/companies/{ticker}/float` - Auth: API key in header `X-Api-Key` Get float breakdown data for a company, including float shares, definition, and as-of date — and, when the headline float is withheld, the bounds and labelled fallbacks that stand in for it. **The cardinal rule: `null` / absent / withheld means NOT MEASURED.** It never means "no float", "no restricted shares" or zero. A numeric `0` is a MEASURED zero and will pass a null check — so decide from the accompanying reason/marker field (`floatWithheldReason`, `restrictedBlockCount`, `provenance`, `direction`), never from the value alone. Coercing an absence into a favourable statement about a named issuer is the defect this contract exists to prevent. **Which "float"?** `floatShares` values do not all share one definition — read `floatDefinition` to know which you are getting: - `tradeable` — shares outstanding minus affiliate holdings minus restricted/unregistered blocks (Regulation S, Rule 144, lock-ups). What can actually reach the tape. Used on tickers covered by a filing-derived dilution snapshot (`source: dilution-snapshot`). - `non_affiliate` — the SEC I.B.6 / Rule 12b-2 "held by non-affiliates" figure, which INCLUDES restricted shares held by non-affiliates. Not what a trader means by float. - `non_affiliate_estimate` — non-affiliate float approximated from Form 4 / 13D-G ownership filings. - `free_float` — vendor-reported free float; methodology varies by provider and is not derived from filings. ⚠️ **Today `floatDefinition` and `source` are only reliably present on filing-derived (`dilution-snapshot`) results.** A vendor-sourced float arrives with NEITHER field (the response is as small as `{ floatShares, asOfDate, floatEstimated }`), because the public API does not disclose which vendor backs a figure. Read an ABSENT `floatDefinition` as "not a filing-derived tradeable float" — treat the figure as vendor free float and do not assume it is tradeable. On snapshot-covered tickers `nonAffiliateFloatShares` carries the SEC I.B.6 figure separately. It is the ONLY correct input to regulatory calculations (baby-shelf / S-3 I.B.6 capacity); do not substitute the tradeable float there, and do not present the non-affiliate figure as tradeable supply. **Withheld floats.** `floatShares` may be `null` with `floatWithheldReason` set: the figure was deliberately withheld because the filings do not support a single tradeable number, not merely unavailable. Do not fall back to a vendor float of your own — the withhold exists precisely because vendor figures are wrong on those tickers. A withheld result may instead carry up to four stand-ins, each of which says what it is IN the object. None of them is a float, and none may be fed to a market capitalisation, a percent-of-float, a short-interest ratio, a screen, a sort, or any comparison with another ticker's float: - `tradeableFloatCeiling` — an UPPER BOUND: the tradeable float is **at most** this many shares. Render it with `≤` and nothing else. `null` = no bound is stateable (an unsized block), never 0. - `affiliateBasis.floatLowerBound` / `floatUpperBound` — a RANGE the float lies in: **between X and Y** shares. Each end is `null` independently when not measurable; state whichever ends exist as inequalities. This object is ALSO present on published floats, where both ends collapse onto `floatShares` — it is a bound only when `floatShares` is null. - `floatEstimate` — a BADGED ESTIMATE with its working: `shares`, the `basis` sentence that itemises how it was reached, a `direction` saying which way it errs (`overstates` = the true float is at most this; `understates` = at least this; `unknown`), and a `confidence`. An estimate is an estimate. It is never promoted into `floatShares`, and `confidence` here describes the estimate, not a float. Today it is populated only on the `affiliate_basis_stale` reason and only when every input is measured; `null` is the ordinary outcome. - `vendorFallback` — a third-party free-float figure offered beside the withhold, labelled `provenance: vendor` / `floatDefinition: free_float` inside the object so the label cannot be dropped. It is NOT our figure: it is not on the tradeable definition, and it has already been judged against every bound above (a vendor figure our filings refute is omitted, not shown). Present it as the vendor's free float with its own `asOfDate`, never in the "Float" slot. `restrictedShares: null` means NOT MEASURED — a restricted block exists whose size the filings do not state. Never treat it as 0. `restrictedBlockCount: 0` IS an answer (no blocks found). `affiliateBasisStale: true` is a LABEL, not a withhold: the affiliate table subtracted to reach the float is materially older than the share count. The number itself is unchanged. **Two other shapes you will see** (measured on the live API): A vendor free float — no `source`, no `floatDefinition`: ```json { "floatShares": 13521179933, "asOfDate": "2026-05-14", "floatEstimated": false } ``` A withheld float carrying a range and a vendor fallback, no headline: ```json { "floatShares": null, "source": "dilution-snapshot", "floatDefinition": "tradeable", "floatWithheldReason": "affiliate_basis_stale", "floatEstimate": null, "vendorFallback": { "floatShares": 303382, "provenance": "vendor", "floatDefinition": "free_float", "asOfDate": "2026-05-13", "splitAdjusted": false }, "affiliateBasisStale": true, "affiliateBasis": { "floatLowerBound": 19960521, "floatUpperBound": 59419326, "issuedSinceBasisShares": 39458805, "issuedSinceBasisPct": 66.4, "anchorDate": "2026-01-21", "signal": "stated_basis" }, "basisSharesOutstanding": 59419326, "affiliateShares": 0 } ``` Read the second as: "tradeable float withheld; between 19,960,521 and 59,419,326 shares; vendor free float 303,382 as of 2026-05-13" — and compute nothing from any of the three numbers. **Credit cost: 3** ## Path parameters - `ticker` string, required ## Response `200` Float breakdown - object ## Other responses - `400`: Invalid request parameters - `401`: Missing or invalid API key - `402`: Not enough credits for this request - `404`: Resource not found - `429`: Rate limit exceeded --- [API](https://skmtc.dev/signal8/apis/signal8-public-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/signal8/apis/signal8-public-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/signal8/apis/signal8-public-api/revisions/5a18ae8d6d58?raw)