I try to look for companies that have roughly 100 million or less outstanding shares. I doubt I will ever be investing in a company with over a billion shares outstanding unless they are on the big boards. I have lost too much money to these types of companies.
The is no excuse for a company to have billions of shares outstanding (read: sell that many shares) unless they are trying to scam shareholders, or if they bring in billions of dollars in revenues a year and we know that no stocks in this price range are capable of the later.
Knowing what to look for (such as companies with low O/S and low float) is the key to finding the gems.