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. As commonly used, individual refers to a Person or to any specific object in a collection Generally a company is a form of Business organization. The precise definition varies A corporation is a separate legal entity usually used to conduct business In financial markets, a share is a Unit of account for various financial instruments including Stocks Mutual funds Limited partnerships Software for Fixed assets management and Stock control developed in 2004. A joint stock company (JSC is a type of business entity it is a type of Corporation or Partnership. A company's shareholders collectively own that company. Thus, such companies strive to enhance shareholder value. Shareholder value is a business buzz term which implies that the ultimate measure of a company's success is to enrich shareholders Stockholders are granted special privileges depending on the class of stock, including the right to vote (usually one vote per share owned, but sometimes this is not the case) on matters such as elections to the board of directors, the right to propose shareholder resolutions, 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. See also Socially responsible investing Shareholder resolutions are proposals submitted by stockholders for a vote at the company's annual meeting 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. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their Creditors Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against
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. A corporate stakeholder is a party who affects or can be affected by the company's actions A business (also called firm or an enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity designed to provide goods and/or services to A non-profit organization ( abbreviated "NPO" also "not-for-profit" is a legally constituted Organization whose objective is to support or engage Thus it might be common to call volunteer contributors to an association stakeholders, even though they are not shareholders. A volunteer is someone who works for a community or for the benefit of environment primarily because they choose to do so A voluntary association or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group
Although directors and officers of a company are bound by fiduciary duties to act in the best interest of the shareholders, the shareholders themselves normally do not have such duties towards each other. fiduciary duty is a legal relationship of confidence or trust between two or more parties most commonly a fiduciary or Trustee and a principal
However, in a few unusual cases, some courts have been willing to imply such a duty between shareholders. For example, in California, majority shareholders of closely held corporations have a duty to not destroy the value of the shares held by minority shareholders[1]. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean.
The largest shareholders (in terms of percentages of companies owned) are often mutual funds, especially passively managed exchange-traded funds. An exchange-traded fund (or ETF) is an investment vehicle traded on Stock exchanges much like Stocks.
Shareholders play an important role in raising finance of any organizations. So these figures pose a great opportunity for all those who are looking for a lucrative option to invest money. All good organization provides all necessary proofs to share holders that they are investing at a right place. Fair and reliable audit figures from income statement and balance sheet enhances chances to make shareholder believe in overall performance.