Capital surplus represents an amount above the par value chosen by the company for the shares that it issued.

The lion's share of this line is generally excess paid-in capital. CompuStat's documentation says the following about what is included and excluded from this data point:

This item includes the effect of and is adjusted for:

• Capital recorded upon reorganization or re-capitalization of the company
• Donations received from stockholders
• Gain on resale or cancellation of reacquired capital stock
• installments on common stock
• Miscellaneous paid-in-capital
• Notes receivable from sale of subscription stock
• Premium on capital stock (excess over par or stated value)
• Reduction in par or stated value of capital stock
• Reserve account for shares to be repurchased (reported in the Equity section)
• Residual from conversion of a class of common into the main class
• Stock of a subsidiary held by the parent company (reported in the Equity section)
• Unrealized stock appreciation
• Deferred compensation effect when reported in the Equity section of the Balance Sheet.

This item excludes:

• Excess over par of common treasury stock, included in Treasury Stock - Total Dollar Amount
• Excess over par of nonredeemable preferred treasury stock, included in Treasury Stock - Total Dollar Amount
• Issuable stock, included in Retained Earnings
• Miscellaneous notes receivable, included in Retained Earnings
• Reserve for shares to be issued, included in Retained Earnings

In practical terms, this is the closest that we have to paid-in capital, largely because of the way that this data is reported today by companies.


Show more details