The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission divides reporting companies, those that file periodic reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, into different categories based on size, among other factors.
[1] Smaller companies have less stringent reporting obligations, provide less historical financial information, are exempt from some provisions of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002,[2] and have more time to file their reports.
The smallest category is Smaller Reporting Company.
A Smaller Reporting Company will qualify as such if, as of the last business day of its second fiscal quarter, it has a public float of less than $250 million.
[3][4] Public float is defined as the shares of the company's publicly traded common stock that is not held by management and certain large investors.