Shareholder Base
The total number of shareholders in a company
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What is Shareholder Base?
Shareholder base refers to the total number of shareholders in a company. In other words, it is a base of owners (investors) of a company that holds a certain number of stock (shares) in the business distributed proportionally, depending on the amount of investment made.
Shareholders are diverse, which means that a shareholder base may include institutional investors, such as pension funds or hedge funds, with their own financial goals and thus investment strategies. They can also be individual investors or high net worth individuals with different investment periods.
The majority of companies focus on shareholder base management. The main reason is that companies believe that their stocks will trade at a significantly higher price if they attract an “ideal” shareholder base.
Summary
- Shareholder base represents the total pool of shareholders in a company.
- Shareholders differentiate from each other by adopting various investment strategies to pursue different goals.
- Shareholder base can be either private or public.
Private and Public Shareholder Bases
Shareholder base is initially formed while opening and registering a company by filing the articles of incorporation. Typically, at the very beginning, the founders of the company would be the only shareholders provided there was no early investment (seed financing) made by other investors (e.g., angel investors).
Once the company grows, it expands its shareholder base by raising funds to maximize efficiency and scale the business faster. If the company is not publicly listed, i.e., not traded on a stock exchange, then it has a private shareholder base. In other words, private shareholders represent a closed circle of individuals or entities who have invested in the company.
When the company matures, achieves stable operations and a solid market position, it decides to go public by offering shares in exchange for cash through an initial public offering (IPO). After the IPO, the company will have a public shareholder base due to offering its shares (a portion of ownership) to anyone who is ready to invest in it.
Value Investors vs. Growth Investors
What particular style of investor strategies is more valued by companies – value investing or growth investing?
Briefly, value investing is an investment style based on the current company’s worth. It involves calculating the value and earnings per share and determining whether the stock is overvalued or undervalued after conducting a thorough financial analysis.
Growth investing, conversely, is focused on the expected future performance of a company and ignores the current situation of its operations and market conditions.
Growth investors seek share price growth, assuming certain stocks will deliver above-average results. They aim to purchase stocks as cheap as possible and sell them later after price appreciation.
More Resources
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