The weighted average number of common shares outstanding is the number of shares outstanding during the year weighted by the portion of the year they were outstanding. For the QRK Company, the weighted number of shares outstanding is the original one million shares plus 150,000 shares for the end-of-March issue (= 200,000 × 9/12), plus 250,000 shares for the end-of-June issue (= 500,000 × 6/12), plus 200,000 shares for the end-of-September issue (= 800,000 × 3/12), or 1.6 million shares.