A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation), that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. Companies listed at the stock market strive to enhance shareholder value. The shareholder concept is the theory that a company only has responsibilities to its shareholders and owners, and should work solely to benefit these people. In metaphysics and statistics, the word individual, while sometimes meaning a person, more typically describes any numerically singular thing. ... In UK law, a company is an artificial legal person with a separate identity from its members. ... A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ... In finance a share is a unit of account for various financial instruments including stocks, mutual funds, limited partnerships, and REITs. ... A stock, also referred to as a share, is commonly a share of ownership in a corporation. ... A joint stock company is a special kind of partnership. ... A stock market is a market for the trading of publicly held company stock and associated financial instruments (including stock options, convertibles and stock index futures). ... Shareholder value refers both to the value of the firm to shareholders and to the management principle of maximizing the worth of a corporation to shareholders. ...

Stockholders are granted special privileges depending on the class of stock, including the right to vote (usually one vote per share owned) on matters such as elections to the board of directors, the right to share in distributions of the company's income, the right to purchase new shares issued by the company, and the right to a company's assets during a liquidation of the company. However, stockholder's rights to a company's assets are subordinate to the rights of the company's creditors. This means that stockholders typically receive nothing if a company is liquidated after bankruptcy (if the company had had enough to pay its creditors, it would not have entered bankruptcy), although a stock may have value after a bankruptcy if there is the possibility that the debts of the company will be restructured. A board of directors is a group of individuals chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company. ... Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ...

Stockholders or shareholders are considered by some to be a partial subset of stakeholders, which may include anyone who has a direct or indirect equity interest in the business entity or someone with even a non-pecuniary interest in a non-profit organization. Thus it might be common to call volunteer contributors to an association stakeholders, even though they are not shareholders. A is a subset of B If X and Y are sets and every element of X is also an element of Y, then we say or write: X is a subset of (or is included in) Y; X ⊆ Y; Y is a superset of (or includes) X; Y ⊇ X... A stakeholder is a person who holds money or other property while its owner is being determined. ... The term business entity refers generally to any organization engaged in business activities, regardless of legal structure. ... A non-profit organization (often called non-profit org or simply non-profit or not-for-profit) is an organization whose primary objective is something other than the generation of profit. ... This group of political volunteers is working to promote voter turn-out. ... Association is the following: A voluntary association (also sometimes called an association) is a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement, explicit or implicit, to form or act as a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose. ...

See also

• Corporate governance
• Stakeholder