An annual meeting in the investing world is a legally-mandated gathering of company leaders and its shareholders. The annual meeting (also known as the annual general meeting) is a place for shareholders to learn about and discuss past and future fiscal years. They also have the opportunity to elect directors for the company’s board. Basically, it’s an opportunity for any shareholders or partners of the company to review what happened in the past 12 months and plan for the year ahead.
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An Annual Meeting is…
Friday, October 8th, 2010The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is…
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a proclamation by the United Nations (proclaimed December 10, 1948) intended to create a worldwide benchmark for Human Rights by laying out every right and freedom a person is inherently entitled to – regardless of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or any other status.
Proxy Voting is…
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010Proxy voting is when someone casts a vote for someone else. If you are a shareholder in a company, you are allowed to vote on certain general decisions made about the company. If you are unable to attend the meeting where the voting takes place, then you might ask someone to be your proxy and submit your vote on your behalf.
What does it mean to take a company public?
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010When a company “goes public” it means that it has decided to expand its ownership to include shareholders from the general public. When a company first goes public it’s called an IPO, or initial public offering. Proceeds (or the money raised from the IPO) can be used to fund further growth or to reward original shareholders (a “payout”). When a company is public, it breaks itself up into shares of stock available to be bought and sold by investors. In the U.S. public companies must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a government agency that regulates U.S. financial markets. Public companies are also required to file public financial statements with the SEC every quarter.
This isn’t true for every company, though. Many companies are “privately held,” which means that only a few people own the company and benefit from its success. In other words, if someone has created a great new company and gone public, anyone can invest their money in that company and share in its success (or, let’s be honest: failures). Private companies are not required to disclose financial information to the public.
How do you keep track of your investment profits or losses?
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010When you calculate your net profit or loss on an investment, you have to factor in what it cost you to make the investment in the first place. That’s called the “cost basis” or “tax basis.”
Here’s a simple example: let’s say you buy 100 shares of Company A for $10 a share – $1,000 in total. That $1,000 is your cost basis. Your gain on the investment is whatever you make that’s above that number. So if you later sell those 100 shares for $15 a share, you make $1,500 in that transaction, but you have to subtract your cost basis, so your profit is $500. If you sell them for $7.50 a share, you make $750, but once you factor in your cost basis, you actually have a $250 loss.
Net Profit is…
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010Net profit is the amount a company makes (or loses) after taking its expenses into account. You can figure out net profit easily by subtracting a company’s total expenses from its total revenue. For example, if Company X has a total revenue of $1,000 in May, but spent $500 to produce the revenue, the net profit would be $500.