"As a result, a beneficial owner’s ownership cannot be tracked to specific shares but rather its ownership interest is represented as a securities entitlement at his or her broker-dealer. Each of those beneficial owners don’t own the actual shares credited to their account " https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/2007/spch101607ers.htm
There can however be more security entitlements than total shares issued by the company.
Share IOUs as far as the eye can see