Stocks Basics: What Are Stocks?

There is every tendency that you might have come across a well-known definition used to describe what a stock is. Since stock represents s a right on the income and assets of an organization, then the stock can simply be defined as a share in the ownership of a company. It is believed that an individual will possess a noticeably more noteworthy stake if the amount of stock acquired increases. However, this cannot be certified to be totally true.
First and foremost, it is imperative to note that corporations are not owned by stake holders. They can only own shares which are issued by the corporation. Corporation by law are regarded as legal personnel and are entitled to all benefits which other individuals are entitled to. At the end of the day, the whole discussion leads to the fact that corporations have the privilege to apply for loans, can possess properties, can be sued, and are mandated to pay tax as well. The corporation is often referred to as a person because it is entitled to own assets. The tables and seats have been found in a corporate office do not belong to the investor, but can be classified as the properties of the corporation.
At this point, it is considerably important to note the difference between the corporation properties and the stakeholder’s properties. A clear and concise way to clearly differentiate is to consider an instance in which a corporation goes bankrupt; on no circumstance will your personal asset be sold. However, the cooperation might be compelled to sell its assets. Your shares still remain intact. Though, the value of might has fallen drastically. The Same principle is applied if a major stakeholder suddenly goes bankrupt. She has no legal right to sell the assets of the company so as to pay her debts.
The assets are owned by the cooperation. Stakeholders are only entitled to the shares issued by this corporation. For instance, having 33% shares of a company does not imply that you own one -third of the company. It simply means that you are entitled to 100% of one-third of the company’s shares. There’s a limit to every action been exhibited by a stakeholder. A stakeholder is not liable to take any of the corporation’s properties. The “separation of ownership and control.” Sets a limit to operations the stakeholder and corporation can carry out.
Well, the questions on many peoples mind now are, what are the privileges attached to having shares? If you own a stock, you have the privilege to vote in meetings which involve stakeholders, benefit from the company’s profits, and can likewise sell your shares.
There’s a great advantage involved in owning a major share in a corporation. This gives you the power to appoint the boards of directors. The major priority of the board of directors is to significantly increase the value of the corporation. And this can only be achieved by engaging the services of skilled personnel, such as a CEO.
It is clear that the essence of buying a share is to earn a profit. Acquiring a larger percentage of shares, guarantees bigger benefits, be that as it may, the profits of some stocks are not shared among the stake holders, but are rather invested back into expanding the company’s stock, and this has an effect on the stock value.
Stock on some occasions is referred to as equity or equities. The main objective of this is to enable a company raise funds for large projects, or to similarly invest it into the growth of the business. Essential peculiarities can be seen between when a share is been bought directly when issued by a company (in the primary market) or when a stakeholder decides to share his stocks (secondary market). It is essential to know that at the point corporation issues share, its main aim of doing so is to get some funds in return.
Asides from issuing shares, there are other ways in which companies engage so as to raise funds. Companies can either decide to borrow a loan from the bank or better still by issuing a debt which is known as bonds. Stock and bonds are not the same. Bonds are a safer investment than stocks. A bondholder is entitled to a repayment of funds as well as interest. In the case of a bankruptcy, and the court may compel the sales of the company’s assets, the bondholders are still entitled to a repayment as they are bounded by legal priority, while the shareholders are entitled to nothing.
The only limitation bondholders have is that they are only entitled to the benefits agreed upon by both parties (the bondholder and the company). While on the other hand, as the profit generated by the company increases, so does the benefit of the stakeholders. The market survey has indicated that the returns of the stock are around 8-10% annually, while the return from bonds is around 5-7%.