"Authorized shares" refers to the number of shares the corporation is allowed to issue under its certificate or articles of incorporation. To help you understand stock ownership and equity capitalization structures, here's a helpful guide to the key stock concepts.If you have a corporation in California you're required to issue shares of stock - we break down what that means and what you need to do. 4.01 Authorized Capital Stock. Authorized stock is the maximum number of shares that a corporation is legally permitted to issue, as specified in its articles of incorporation. Authorized capital stock is the largest amount of shares a company is permitted to issue. A corporation may also appoint its initial directors in the articles. The authorized capital. Issued shares, however, is the number of shares actually "issued", or given out to shareholders. Only issued shares are counted for ownership purposes.