# Dual-Class Shares and Market Cap: Why Tickers Get Combined

> Many companies have more than one share class. Here's how to add them up for true market cap — and why MarketCapLens lists each company once.

Source: MarketCapLens — https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/dual-class-shares-and-market-cap
Updated: 2026-07-28

Some companies don’t have just one kind of share. They issue **two (or more) classes** — often
one with extra voting power for founders and another that most public investors trade. Each
class can have its **own ticker and price**. That raises an obvious question: which number
counts toward [market capitalization](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/what-is-market-capitalization)?

**Key takeaways**

- Dual-class setups mean more than one share type (and often more than one ticker).
- Full company market cap adds up **every** class: price × shares for each, then sum.
- Ranking by a single ticker can understate size or list the same company twice.
- MarketCapLens **combines** share classes so each company appears once, at full size.

## A simple picture

Suppose Northwind Co. has:

| Class | Ticker | Price | Shares | Class market cap |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Class A (public) | NWIN | $100 | 800 million | $80B |
| Class B (votes) | NWIN.B | $100 | 200 million | $20B |
| **Company total** |  |  |  | **$100B** |

If you only looked at NWIN, you’d think Northwind was an $80B company. It isn’t — the other
$20B is real equity sitting in Class B. Add the classes and you get the true $100B size.

(Prices for voting and non-voting classes are often close but not always identical; the same
idea holds either way: multiply each class, then add.)

## Why companies do this

Founders sometimes want public capital without giving up control. A dual-class structure lets
the public own a large economic stake while a smaller, high-vote class keeps decision-making
power. It’s common among large tech and media names. You don’t need to love or hate the
governance debate to read a market-cap ranking — you just need to know **economic size**
includes every class.

## What goes wrong if you don’t combine classes

- **Undercounting.** Ranking only the liquid ticker makes the company look smaller than it is.
- **Double-counting.** Listing both tickers as separate “companies” inflates the list and
  splits one business into two rows.
- **Confused comparisons.** “Biggest in the sector” only works if every peer is measured the
  same way.

## How MarketCapLens handles it

We treat share classes as **one company**. The classes are combined into a single market cap
so the [ranking](https://www.marketcaplens.com/) and [sector](https://www.marketcaplens.com/sectors) pages show companies, not tickers. For the rest of
the rules (U.S. listing, size floor, update cadence), see
[How the MarketCapLens Ranking Works](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/how-the-ranking-works).

Related: [shares outstanding vs. float](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/shares-outstanding-vs-float) — that’s about
*which shares trade freely*, not about summing multiple classes.

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*For general education only. Nothing here is investment advice.*

## Frequently asked questions

### What are dual-class shares?

Dual-class structures mean a company has two or more types of shares — often with different voting rights — that may trade under separate tickers and prices.

### How does MarketCapLens handle multiple share classes?

It combines a company's share classes into one market cap so the company appears once in the ranking, at its full size, rather than as separate ticker rows.