Shareholder

A company that issues stock divides its ownership into units called shares. If you hold some of them you are a shareholder, an owner in proportion to your share of the total. If you hold 100 shares of a company that has issued 10 million, you own one hundred-thousandth of it.

The price may rise above what you paid or fall below it, leaving shares worth less than you invested. The company may also pay a dividend, a share of its profits paid out to shareholders. Shareholders usually vote on matters such as electing the board of directors.

Dividends are never guaranteed, and if a company goes bankrupt, its lenders and other creditors are paid before shareholders, who often receive nothing. The same word is used for people who own shares of a mutual fund.