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Showing posts with the label public float

What is short selling?

Simple definition of short selling  is the sale of an asset that the seller has borrowed in order to profit later from  fall in the price of the asset. In other words trader sells securities at one price and buys it back at a lower price making gain in the price difference. in this article we are referring to stock although you ca short any instrument or asset, bonds, commodities, currencies, etc. There is usually certain amount of speculation that causes traders to short sell or the need to protect oneself against loss on investment by balancing transaction. Basically there are two basic types of investors, buy-and-hold investors and  day traders. The first hold their portfolio stocks for the long term expecting to see significant rise in price over time which will result in gains. Other category of investors trade on the short term basis. Unlike investors that go long and wait for stock price to build up traders buy stock that will possibly fall in price....

Why companies split stock?

Stock split or forward stock split is a corporate action where board of directors decides to issue more shares by dividing existing outstanding shares into multiple shares defined by the predetermined ratio. Most common ratios are 2 for 1 or 3 for one where investors for every share they own get two or three shares respectively. Likewise, price will be divided accordingly. If for example you originally owned 100 shares, each worth $15 in 2 for 2 split you will receive 200 shares  each worth $7.5 and in situation where 3 for 1 split is done it will be 300 shares with $5 price per share. As you can see no real value is added and market capitalization is the same just like with reverse stock split. Companies do this for various reasons. Some stock price can reach astonishing level and company's official might want to lower the price to make it more appealing to small retail investors. Some argue that there is a psychological effect which makes owning more stock at a low...

Is reverse split good or bad?

Reverse stock split reduces number of outstanding shares in a predetermined ratio. It is also known as stock consolidation, share rollback or stock merger because two or more shares are merged into one more valuable share.  Reverse split is considered to be a corporate action, meaning action that is affecting share price and needs to be approved by the company's board of directors and possibly by voting shareholders. Company can even get additional letter D to its ticker signifying that it is going through reverse split. Number of total outstanding shares, which includes shares currently held by all shareholders, including institutional investors and restricted shares, is usually divided with 5 or 10 getting ratio one for five or one for ten but it can be as little as one to two or big as one to hundred. For example if you have 100 shares worth $1 each so you have $100 worth of shares. if a company is going for one for then reverse split, you will receive ten shares, each...

What is common stock?

A stock is a type of security that signifies peace of ownership in a corporation an represents a claim on a part of the corporation's assets and earnings. There two main types of shares: common shares and preferred shares. There are clear distinction between two types of shares, primarily based on voting rights and dividend payments. Common shares are also know as ordinary shares, voting shares or equity shares. First ever common stock was established in 1602 by Dutch East India Company and introduced on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.  During initial public offering company offers shares for sale and in that way sells part of the company in order to raise capital. Underwriter helps company to determine type and pricing of offered securities. After IPO company's shares become publicly traded and company can issue new stock. Percentage of shareholders' ownership is determined by the number of shares in his possession, which are some percentage of total number of out...

Annual report

Annual report is an audited corporate document that details the business activity and financial status over the previous year. It became regular part of corporate financial reporting after stock market crash in 1929. Annual report is distributed to shareholders at the end of the year and SEC also requires from company to file annual report on the form 10-K. Annual report contains audited financial statement and other company related data like in dept information about company's products, services, competitors, management and legal proceedings. Investors can access reports through EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) and download report for free. Annual reports that is sent to shareholders and stakeholders consist of records of company's activities during the past year and financial and operational information. Included information are general corporate information,graphs and photos, financial and operating highlights, letter to shareholders from CE...

Quarterly report

Quarterly report is set of financial statements issued by a company at the end of fiscal quarter on a SEC form 10Q. It is a report of company performance during the specified period which helps investors to feel pulse of the company by getting insights into business performance and growth rate and provides them with future outlook. Federal Securities law require from public companies to to provide certain information. Form 10Q has two parts that have to disclose relevant information regarding the company's financial position. First part contains unaudited financial  statement (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) for the quarter and year-to-date and results from previous year for comparison. It also includes management discussion and analysis of the company's financial condition, disclosure about risk factors that may affect the value of the company, internal controls. Second part contains all other pertinent information, including legal proceedings, u...

Smaller reporting company

Reporting company or reporting issuer is a company that is obliged to file periodic reports under section 13 or 15 (d) of Securities Exchange Act. There are couple of reason why companies become reporting issuers. One of the reasons is securities exchange listing. Before securities can be traded on one of the exchanges they must be registered with Securities and Exchange Commission. Another reason is size threshold. If company has assets worth more than $10 million and a class of equity securities held by 2,000 person or 50 or more non accredited investors. Companies that issue securities but are not listed on any exchanges are also subject to Securities Exchange Act. In the first two cases company must file periodic and current reports. SEC divides reporting companies that file periodic reports under Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into different categories based on size among other factors. Smaller companies have less stringent reporting requirements and are exempt from ...