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Shares outstanding are all the shares of a corporation or financial asset that have been authorized, issued and purchased by investors and are held by them. They have rights and represent ownership in the corporation by the person that holds the shares. They are distinguished from treasury shares, which are shares held by the corporation itself and have no exercisable rights. Shares outstanding plus treasury shares together amount to the number of issued shares. (Wikipedia)

Conversely, earnings generally refers to the net income of a business, and so is only positioned at the bottom of the income statement. It is also incorporated into the concept of earnings per share, where the net profits of a publicly-held company are divided by the number of shares outstanding to arrive at an earnings per share figure. (AccountingTools)