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. 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, although a stock may have value after a bankruptcy if there is the possibility that the debts of the company will be restructured.
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, such as a hypothetical online open contentencyclopedia, stakeholders, even though they are not shareholders.
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation), that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stockcompany.
This means that stockholders typically receive nothing if a company is liquidated after bankruptcy, although a stock may have value after a bankruptcy if there is the possibility that the debts of the company will be restructured.
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.
For several decades, institutional stockholders and wealthy investors have used their position as stockholders in public companies to change corporate behavior by proposing resolutions for consideration at the meetings of such companies.
Stockholder advocates have successfully used this process to secure significant changes in corporate governance and to promote greater social responsibility by targeted companies on a variety of issues ranging from excessive CEO pay to labor rights.
Across the nation, religious organizations and nonprofit groups are beginning to use stockholder resolutions to push for improvement in corporate practices around matters such as economic justice, tolerance of diversity and improved environmental practices.
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