Shareholder is a very common English word in business context, which in Portuguese means shareholder, that is, it is a person who own at least one share of an organization or company.
The shareholders (shareholders) can make some profit if the company has some success in the market. In spite of this, the opposite can also happen, the shares can devalue, causing the shareholder to lose money if the company has bad results.
One shareholder or stockholder, is also part of the group known as stakeholders (someone who has a direct or indirect interest in the company).
The word shareholder is composed by the joining of share (which in English means share of a company) and holder (one who owns or holds something), that is, it means someone who owns or holds shares in that company.
A shareholder has some rights within the company. He has the right to:
- sell the shares you own;
- vote on directors appointed by the board;
- appoint administrators (which is not always the case, due to the protection of minorities);
- receive dividends (when they are declared);
- buy new shares that are issued by the company;
- receive assets that exist after a liquidation;
- inspect company records;
- sue the company for management errors.
Shareholders can belong to the primary or secondary market. Primary market shareholders inject capital into companies, while secondary market shareholders do not invest capital directly in the company. "Secondary" shareholders are not personally responsible for the company's debts, have no other obligations, and do not play important roles in the management of the company. Who does this is the board of directors. Despite this, shareholders can vote on corporate matters, such as the election of the board of directors or proposals for mergers with other companies.
Shareholder value
The concept of shareholder value, or "shareholder value", became very popular in the 1980s, and is a measure of a company's success, that is, the measure to which it benefits shareholders. Shareholder value includes the strategic measures that are taken to increase the company's efficiency.