Common Shareholder

  

Categories: Stocks, Incorporation

Someone who holds common shares in a company. See: Common Stock.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is Common Stock?379 Views

00:03

Finance a la shmoop what is common stock well, common stock

00:08

simply put is ownership common stock ownership is a foundation of what [Businesssmen and women in a meeting fighting for control]

00:12

comprises control in a corporation it's the common stock that elects the board

00:17

of directors who then hires the CEO who then you know hires everyone else so [The organizational chart of a corporation]

00:22

yeah when someone owns a share they own a teeny tiny piece of a company the more

00:26

shares they own well the more of a voice they have in the management of that [Company building crumbles to the floor]

00:30

company so someone who has 51% of the shares in a company will actually have a

00:34

lot to say in the election of a Board of Directors for example where someone with [Member of the board with 51% shouting orders at other members]

00:38

the small percentage of shares still has a voice but it's a small squeaky one in

00:44

a bankruptcy situation common stock sits at the very bottom of the stack of

00:48

priorities in being paid back a company that's going bankrupt will start by [Examples of priority stack with IRS obligations first]

00:52

paying any IRS obligations, yeah the IRS always wins then they'll pay

00:56

employees their salaries and they'll pay any vendors who are owed money then

00:59

they'll pay off bank loans and they'll pay back preferred stock and finally at

01:03

the very bottom there if there are a few nickels and dimes left over they'll pay [Man emptying nickels and dimes from jean pocket]

01:07

common stockholders back but shares you hear quoted from Apple and Amazon and

01:11

bathmats are us are all just common stock being traded on NASDAQ or the New [Apple, Amazon and Bathmats R Us stock prices displayed on NASDAQ screens]

01:16

York Stock Exchange or other places which are owned by millions and millions

01:20

of common and uncommon people [A strange person wearing shoes for gloves in a busy office]

Up Next

Finance: How does a board of directors function?
27 Views

How does a board of directors function? Public companies, as well as some private corporations and non profit groups, have a board of directors. Us...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)