Stock Markets Exposed - I have some questions in regard to stock data on U.S. stock market quotes?

I have some questions in regard to stock data on U.S. stock market quotes?

What do shares outstanding and public floats mean? What is the P/E ratio and Market cap? Thank you for your time.

Shares outstanding means the number of shares available of a given stock that someone/something (ie another company or fund) can purchase and own. Public Float is slightly more complicated. A shareholder base is made up of 3 parts: 1) Insiders - Senior Management or Directors that work at the company that own shares 2) 5% holders - Anyone besides #1 that own over 5% of the company 3) Public Float - Everything else Since the first two types rarely change their holdings frequently due to a variety of issues (legal restrictions, ability to quickly find a buyer of 5% of the shares, etc.), the market doesn't look at those as constantly being up for sale. Thus, everything else is the "public" float.