What does market capitalization mean?

What the stock market says the company's equity is worth.

How do you interpret market capitalization?

A size and market-sentiment gauge, not a quality measure — interpret through valuation ratios (P/E, P/S) that relate it to fundamentals.

Comparable across companies as a size class; the input to every equity-price valuation multiple.

Ares CapitalARCC

$20.23-7.6%

AmetekAME

$35.9M-0.6%

PNW

Pinnacle West CapitalPNW

$3.22B+3.5%

The Carlyle GroupCG

$2.24B-7.1%

M&T BankMTB

$281M+0.4%

EvercoreEVR

$23.94M—

Operating income-$29.9M-131%

Net income-$27.2M-120%

EPS (diluted)-$1.32+93.3%

Cash & equivalents$168.4M+419%

Total debt$4.0K—

Total equity$390.6M+744%

Total assets$397.4M—

Operating cash flow-$21.2M-59.0%

CapEx--100%

Free cash flow-$21.2M-58.7%

Return on equity-28.7%—

Current ratio59.1×—

What does market capitalization mean?: What the stock market says the company's equity is worth.
How do you interpret market capitalization?: A size and market-sentiment gauge, not a quality measure — interpret through valuation ratios (P/E, P/S) that relate it to fundamentals.
How does market capitalization compare across companies?: Comparable across companies as a size class; the input to every equity-price valuation multiple.