please give examples.
2007-11-23 10:21:58 · 6 answers · asked by nightowl 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Investing
well common stock is issued by a company and represents
OWNERSHIP in the company.
So the stock holders are the owners of the company.
Now if the company is called publically traded, then the shares or stocks trade on a stock market. You hear about the stock market all the time.
If a person buys a common share (ususally you have to buy a minimum of 100 shares) they buy it from their stock broker.
The shares or stocks will trade on the stock market, and the price of the shares are determined by the market. That is, there is no guarantee. If you buy a stock at $10, there is nothing that says it can't go to zero. So buying stocks or shares is quite risky. The stockholder has no claim for anything..the only thing a common stock holder can do is vote for who he/she wants to sit on the board of directors of the company. Sometimes a common stock holder can vote for other issues, such as a company takeover. A common stock holder has no say in how the company is run on a day to day basis.
Take a look around your house. Virtually all of the companies that make the cereals, appliances, chemicals and others all are big public companies who have millions of shares and shareholders.
You can find out more information by looking in the Yahoo Finance section.
2007-11-23 10:46:59 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
In general there are 2 types of stock: common & preferred. Both represent shareholder interest in a publicly traded company.
Preferred stock holders have an advantage. If a company issued preferred stock and common stock and the company declared a dividend, the preferred stockholders would received the dividend before the common stockholders would. If there was enough money to pay the preferred and not the common dividendwise, the common would lose out on the dividend but not the preferred.
2007-11-24 23:40:31 · answer #2 · answered by !!! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A common stock is meant to distinguish from other types of stocks, such as preferential.
In term of ranking, after satisfying other types of stockholders, common stockholders are the last group to be satisfied with.
2007-11-23 20:12:23 · answer #3 · answered by labare 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The opposite of uncommon stock. Hehehe
2007-11-23 21:34:17 · answer #4 · answered by john p 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Try entering a Dictionary at Dictionary.com
2007-11-23 18:25:22 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/commonstock.asp
2007-11-23 18:43:11 · answer #6 · answered by jeff410 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋